


Stucky In My Heart

by Pearl09



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Baby Peter Parker, Bucky is a little shit, Bucky is addicted to caffeine, Endgame Fix-It, Fix-It, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Minor Violence, No Smut, Non-Graphic Violence, Non-Serum Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes | Shrinkyclinks, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Precious Peter Parker, Proposals, Slight blood mention, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Steve is a little shit, Steve is a wreck, Tony loves his nicknames, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Yes Those Are Plural, for everything, for now, marriages, mostly non canon compliant, only chapter 36 though, stucky angst, stucky fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2019-07-12 10:25:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 60,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15993278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearl09/pseuds/Pearl09
Summary: A collection of Stucky one shots! Read summaries for prompts and content warningsI take requests! Just fill out this form :)form linkIf the link is missing, then requests are closed for the moment. The link will reappear when requests are open again. Read the beginning of the form for request restrictionsNeed help with a prompt?Tags will be updated as more one shots are posted





	1. Technology Inept

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bucky compete over who can sound the most helpless when it comes to technology

Unlike what everyone thinks, Steve and Bucky are not incompetent with technology. They may both be over 100 years old, but Bucky was taught a ton of different skills as the Winter Soldier, so of course he knows about technology, and Steve had to sit through a ton of courses at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Steve has a photographic memory, thanks to the serum, so he remembers everything.

Steve and Bucky just love to mess with people though. The other Avengers make assumptions, so Bucky and Steve roll with it. They keep track of who can make everyone else frustrated the most. Steve is currently winning, mainly because not many people actively try to start talking to him due to the Winter Soldier thing. Bucky wants to change this.

Walking into the common room, Bucky sees Steve and Sam sitting around the kitchen island, talking. Bucky decides to go over to the TV, and pretend he doesn’t know how to use it.

He sits down and presses the power button, turning it on. The power button’s pretty simple, he’d look like an idiot if he didn’t know how to do that.

He starts pressing random channel buttons, staying on each channel for a few minutes before changing it, even if he thought it might have been interesting.

Steve notices from the kitchen island and starts to make faces at Bucky, knowing exactly what he is trying to do. Bucky’s spent years with that face though, it doesn’t affect him anymore. It takes forever for Sam to notice, as he’s too busy giving his full attention to Steve.

“You okay over there, Bucky?” he calls from his chair.

“Yeah, just trying to find something to watch.”

Sam lets it go for a few more minutes before he has to step in. As he walks over to Bucky, Steve rolls his eyes behind him.

“You know, there is an easier way to find something to watch, right?’

Bucky feigns a look of surprise. “There is? I thought I just had to keep pressing numbers.”

“Yeah, the numbers represent the channels. Each channel has its own unique number so you can find it. But, you can also use a channel guide. That also shows you what show is playing.”

Bucky puts his best confused face on, and Sam sighs. He sits down next to Bucky. “Can I see the remote?”

Bucky hands it over and watches as Sam shows him how all the buttons on the remote work. After an extensive explanation, Sam hands the remote back over to Bucky. “Think you understand now?”

Bucky nods and looks over the remote, contemplating. “I do this, right?” Bucky starts pressing random numbers again. 

Sam looks at Bucky with a ‘why do I even deal with this’ glare. Steve tries his best not to laugh from the other side of the room, turning red as he holds his laughter. 

“I just showed you how to use it, and you went back to the same thing. Did you not learn anything?”

“So I’m not doing it right?”

Sam stands, trying to keep his cool. “You know what? You do you. Whatever works.” With that, Sam leaves the room, and Steve takes his place on the couch. 

Slinging an arm around Bucky’s shoulders, he says, “I’m surprised Sam lasted that long since you guys fight all the time.”

Bucky leans into Steve. “So, am I winning now?”

“I don’t know, Sam didn’t get mad at you, he just left. You should have seen the extensive course Bruce gave me on how I don’t have to write out my texts and emails like I’m writing on a typewriter. I swear he was looking green around the edges when I still wrote stop at the end of each line after he finished.”

Bucky snorts. “Okay, fine. Would you settle for a tie?”

Steve thinks about it and then nods. At least until I convince Tony that I think my emails are supposed to come in physical letters.”

“Not if I can get Clint to explain to me how to use google first.”

“You’re on,” Steve says. They watch the rest of the TV show together until Natasha takes over the remote to show them something they haven’t seen yet.  
~~~  
Unfortunately, Clint recently left to go back to his family for an unknown amount of time, so Steve got to do his first.

Tony, Bruce, and Bucky were in the labs together. Tony was working on a suit upgrade for Peter on one side of the room, and on the other, Bruce was showing Bucky some Hulk related science.

Steve walks in and catches Bucky’s eye, and then winks before walking over to Tony. Unfortunately, Bucky finds science rather interesting, and Bruce expects him not to know anything anyways, so he has to sit and watch as Steve takes the win.

“Hey Tony,” Steve says when he gets close enough. “Got a minute?”

Tony finishes what he was doing and puts his tools down. “Sure capsicle, what’s up?”

Steve pulls his phone out of his pocket and Tony immediately grows weary. “I have been sending these e-mails, but I don’t get any responses.”

“Here, let me take a look.” Tony takes the phone from Steve and looks at his inbox. “Steve, all the responses are right here.”

Steve puts on his best confused face. “You mean they don’t show up in my mailbox?”

Tony looks at him, his expression saying how much he hates this conversation already. “You send the email electronically. You get a response electronically. They appear in your inbox.”

“Really?” Steve acts surprised. 

“What did you think happened?”

“I thought they get send to someone whose job is to type up the emails and send them to whoever they go to. So the responses would come as letters.”

Tony rolls his eyes and shoves the phone back in Steve’s face. “Look, they’re all right here.”

Steve takes the phone and looks at it. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, Steve, I am sure I know how technology works. While we’re at it, why don’t we talk about your typing habits?”

Bruce calls from the other side of the lab with a strained look in his eyes. “Don’t bother Tony. I already tried.”

Bucky has to try not to laugh after that, or risk blowing their facade, which means he opts for a coughing fit instead.

“You okay, Bucky?” Bruce asks, to which Bucky can only respond with a thumbs up as he continues to cough.

The whole time Steve stares at his phone, contemplating. He looks up at Tony. “Are you sure they don’t come in the mail?”

Tony looks up at the ceiling. “Damn it, Rogers. I need to get this done before Parker gets here, I don’t have time for this.” With that, Tony resumes his work.

“Okay,” says Steve. “Thanks for the help.” He then leaves.

Later, Bucky walks into their room and drops a pile of papers in front of Steve. “You win.”

Steve grins at him devilishly. “I did pretty good, didn’t I?”

“You tell me,” Bucky says, gesturing to the pile of papers. “When you left, Tony asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to go through your inbox and print out any emails you get so you can get a physical copy and not ask about it again. I also now have cough syrup I’m supposed to take twice a day to help get rid of my ‘cough’.” He says the last word with air quotes.

Steve laughs and starts to leaf through the papers as Bucky goes and dumps cough syrup down the sink so it looks like he took some. When he gets back, Steve says, “You think I can convince Natasha I don’t know how to get my camera off of selfie mode?”


	2. PDA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bucky annoy the rest of the Avengers with their PDA
> 
> CW: Implied smut

Everyone knew something was up when Steve wasn’t out of bed yet. He was always the first one up, usually going out for a run and making it back just as everyone else starts to wake up. It’s been nearly an hour since everyone else got up and started on breakfast and coffee.

“Should we go check on him?” Sam asks, concerned for his friend.

Natasha shakes her head. “I don’t think he’s still in bed, he’s probably still out on a run. Didn’t want to stop.”

A few other Avengers nod in agreement and the subject dies. After a few more minutes, Bucky wanders in, late like normal. His hair is a tangled mess, and he shuffles over to the coffee maker in a robe. Everyone knows not to interrupt Bucky until he’s had at least one cup of coffee, lest they want a knife pressed against their throat. So, they wait as Bucky stands in front of the coffee maker and downs two mugs before saying anything. 

“Cyborg, have you seen spangled this morning?”

Bucky grunts an affirmative as he downs his third cup of coffee. 

“M’here,” says Steve blearily, walking to the kitchen in just boxers. He walks straight to the fridge and starts searching through it. His usually perfect hair is a mess, sticking out in all sorts of directions.

Steve pulls the milk out of the fridge as Sam asks, “Hey man, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?” He turns around to look at Sam and Tony chokes on his bowl of cereal. There are faint bruises trailing up and down Steve’s neck and chest.

“Uhh, nothing,” Sam says, taking a drink of his orange juice to hide his reaction.

Steve doesn’t notice anything and instead walks over to Bucky. He presses close to him and Bucky turns his head, being met with a kiss from Steve. Everyone averts their eyes. 

Bucky turns back to the coffee machine and fills one more cup and then finally moves away from it. His robe has loosened, revealing that he too has bruises up and down his neck, a lot darker than Steve’s. 

Clint throws his spoon back into his bowl and stands abruptly. “I’m going to go wash my eyes with bleach if anyone wants to join.”

Steve looks at him with the barest trace of a smile, as if he knows exactly what is going on and was doing it on purpose. 

Sam gets up and says, “I’ll join you.”

Natasha rolls her eyes and follows out after them.

Bruce picks up his coffee and nods at Steve, saying, “Seems like you certainly are happy now.” He then drags Tony out before the shock wears off and he says something inappropriate. 

Thor, who was quiet throughout the whole thing, simply sits and finishes off his box of pop-tarts. When he finishes, Thor claps Steve on his shoulder. “You seem to have found an excellent partner. I hope the two of you grow even more fond of each other as you continue to make love.”

Steve chokes and grows red as Thor leaves, and Bucky laughs at him. 

When Bucky finally stops laughing, Steve asks, “We got them all you leave. Was that your goal?”

Bucky simply winks and pulls Steve in for another kiss.  
~~~  
Steve jumps on top of one of the attacking robots as they try to clear the area of civilians. Bucky is with him, shooting the others right in their circuit panels. Steve rips the head off of the robot and it crumbles to the ground.

“Heads up,” he says, tossing it to Bucky.

Bucky knocks it to the side with his arm and rolls his eyes. “If I didn’t love you, punk, I would dump your ass for that.”

“Like you haven’t said worse.”

Tony cuts in over the comms. “Okay, we’re here fighting a robot invasion, we don’t need you two talking about your sex life over there. Just get the civilians out.”

Steve punches at another robot, and his fist goes right through its circuits. “We weren’t doing that,” he says.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Are you clear yet over there or not? I don’t want to find a stray civilian being held hostage by these robots.”

“Yeah, we’re clear,” Bucky says as he helps the last person into the building everyone else was hiding in. A robot comes out of nowhere and jumps on him, knocking him over. Steve’s shield quickly decapitates it, and Steve holds his hand out to help Bucky up. 

Bucky takes it, and Steve pulls him up and into a kiss.

“Come on, guys,” says Clint through the comms. “We have a real problem, stop making out in the corner over there.”

“Yeah, if people get pictures of you two kissing in the middle of a fight again, Pepper will kill me. You know how crazy the media went over the last ones.” Tony flies towards them and grabs Bucky, pulling him away from the kiss. “Come on, Robocop, you can watch up here from this roof. Use your sniper. Stay away from Steve or I will put you further.”

Steve picks up his shield and laughs as he watches a grumpy Bucky being placed down on the roof of a nearby building. Then more robots spot him, so he has to start fighting again.  
~~~  
It’s movie night with the Avengers. Stark has his own movie theater in the building, so they try to have a movie night at least once a week. 

This week on catch Steve and Bucky up on movies night, they decided it’s time to show Steve and Bucky Pirates of the Caribbean.

Steve and Bucky sit next to each other in the theater on the couches that replace normal movie chairs. They are in a spot that everyone else can see them, so they can watch their reactions. 

As the movie starts, Bucky snuggles into Steve’s side, and Steve starts to rub circles on Bucky’s back. Bucky isn’t that interested in the movie, deciding he’d much rather pinch Steve to be annoying. 

The first time Bucky does it, Steve jumps, gaining side eyes from everyone else. Once Steve is relaxed again, Bucky finds a new spot to pinch. Steve hits at his hand.

Eventually, Sam pauses the movie. “Look, either knock it off, or someone’s going to separate you two. Some of us are actually trying to enjoy the movie over here.”

Bucky sits up normally again and rolls his eyes. “Fine.” He leans his head on Steve’s shoulder, and the movie resumes. 

It is soon paused again, this time by Natasha. Steve and Bucky are too busy making out to notice it was paused. She gets up and sits down in between the two of them, forcing them apart, and their make-out session to end.

Steve turns red and looks away, back to the movie screen. Bucky starts to protest, but Natasha fixes him with a glare. 

“No. PDA. When we’re watching a movie.”

Bucky rolls his eyes but resigns to his fate, and Natasha stays in between them for the rest of the movie to make sure they don’t try to do anything else.


	3. Fucking Hydra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky gets hurt on a mission and Steve is a wreck
> 
> CW:Non - descriptive violence, blood mention

It was a standard mission. Not like anything they haven’t faced before. Hydra was still out there but was dwindling quickly. The Avengers taking down any base they could find helped, so that is what they did.

Their information was wrong, and there were more people there than had been anticipated. Everyone was separated from each other, but they were fighting through it. They always prepared for a few more people than what they thought.

Natasha calls out through the comms, “Steve?”

He punches a man in the head, knocking him out, before saying, “What’s wrong?”

“Winter Soldier is down.”

Steve didn’t even realize he was moving until he was being shot at by a tank. The Hulk runs over to the tank and rips it apart. 

“Thanks, Hulk. Natasha, location?”

“Straight in front of you.” Steve looks and sees her waving before she runs off to fight more Hydra goons.

Steve reaches the spot only to find Bucky sitting against a tree, breathing hard. His hands are pressing against one of his sides.

Steve crouches in front of him. “Buck, it’s me, I’m here.”

Bucky opens his eyes and sees Steve. He then leans his head back against the tree. “Fuck, Steve, they got me.”

“Yeah, they certainly did. What happened?”

“I was in the tree, ugh, then the fuckin,” he inhales sharply, having moved too much. “A harpoon, man. A fucking harpoon. Pulled me out of the damn tree. Then it, ah, was pulled out of me.”

Steve looks around and sees the harpoon laying near to Bucky’s sniper, covered in blood. He picks the rifle up and slings it across his back.

“We need to get you back to the quinjet, okay? Do you think you can stay with me until then?”

Bucky nods, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

Steve speaks into the comms. “Winter Soldier down, I’m taking him back to the jet.”

Clint answers, “Go, Steve, we’ve got it from here.”

With that, Steve kneels next to Bucky and slowly lifts his legs up to fit his hand under them. He then slowly moves Bucky’s torso forward to get an arm behind his back, wincing every time Bucky hisses in pain. He wishes he could take the pain away from Bucky.

Once Steve’s arms are in position, Bucky moves his metal arm from the wound and wraps it around Steve’s neck, anchoring him. Steve stands and braces Bucky against him, then as quick as he can without hurting Bucky takes him back to the quinjet.

Once there, Steve lays Bucky out on the floor, and Bucky’s hand goes right back to holding his wound. Steve goes to the medical kit and pulls out bandages, his goal right now to try and get the bleeding to stop.

Bucky groans as Steve moves his hands off of his side and takes his shirt off. Steve then starts to wrap the wound, making sure to get both the entrance and the exit wound.

“Hey Steve,” Bucky says, looking up at him blearily.

Steve pushes his worry away to smile at Bucky. “Yeah?”

“You look really pretty right now.”

Steve continues to wrap Bucky’s wound. “Do I?”

Bucky nods, and his eyes close again. “Sometimes, I forget you aren’t the little punk I had to take care of after fights.”

“Yeah, looks like I’m the one taking care of you now, huh?”

A small smile goes across Bucky’s face. “Yeah, punk.”

Steve finishes wrapping the wound and lays Bucky back down. He holds his hands on Bucky’s side to stop the bleeding. 

Bucky’s hand wraps around Steve’s wrist. “I love you, punk.”

“I love you too, Buck,” Steve says, blinking away the tears. 

“M’real sleepy, Stevie.”

“Stay with me, Buck. I don’t know how to treat you for a concussion, you need to wait until Banner is himself again.”

“M’real sleepy,” Bucky repeats again, and Steve feels the hand on his wrist going limp.

“Bucky?”

There’s no response.

Steve moves one of his hands off of the wound to Bucky’s neck, feeling for a pulse. There is still one, so Steve sits holding the wound for what feels like ages to him until the rest of the team finally gets back to the quinjet. 

Tony quickly starts the quinjet so they can get back as quickly as possible. 

Sam crouches next to Steve and rests his hand on his shoulder. Steve looks up at him through blurred vision. He didn’t realize he was crying. 

They rush Bucky into the infirmary as soon as they get back, and the doctors Tony hired immediately rush into action. They try to get rid of Steve, but he refused to leave, and no one was strong enough to physically remove him.

They provide him with a chair and he sits next to Bucky as they make sure his organs are okay and stitch the wound closed. They give him an IV for pain reliever and instruct Steve to let them know when he wakes up.

Sam is the first to visit, bringing Steve his sketchbooks so he has something to do as he waits.

“Just make sure to get some food and some sleep, okay?”

Steve nods, and Sam leaves.

Clint is next, coming in the next morning with food.

“I know you haven’t moved for a while, so I brought you food. And I will sit here until you eat it.”

Clint, true to his word, sets the food down next to Steve and takes the other chair. Steve takes fifteen minutes to finish the sketch he was working on, and Clint is still there. He rolls his eyes and takes the food, eating all of it even though he isn’t hungry. 

“There, you happy?” Steve asks once he finishes the last piece. 

Clint stands. “Yep. Lord knows you won’t leave the room for the basic necessities such as food and sleep.” He then walks out of the room.

Later that night, Natasha comes in, getting right to the chase. “Steve, you haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours. You’re going to run yourself down like this.”

Steve shakes his head. “I’m good. I can go for at least another two days before I need to crash.”

Natasha gives him a disappointed look. “Steve, that’s not healthy. Bucky would understand if you aren’t here when he wakes up because you were sleeping.”

Steve refuses to leave, and Natasha sighs. “Fine, but don’t blame me if he yells at you when he wakes up.”

It’s very early in the morning when Steve sees Bucky’s arm twitch. He immediately loses focus on his drawing and pays attention to Bucky to see if he’s waking up. It takes so long that Steve almost goes back to drawing before he hears a low groan from Bucky.

“Fucking Hydra,” mumbles Bucky, slowly moving his head up to look around. Steve can’t do anything to hide the big smile spreading across his face. He presses the button next to the bed for the doctors to come.

“How long have I been out for?” slurs Bucky, still slightly out of it from the pain medicine.

“Almost two days.”

The doctors come in as Bucky says again, “Fucking Hydra.”

They fill Bucky in on what happened while he has been out, and Bucky slowly wakes up more as they talk. When they leave again, Bucky turns his attention to Steve.

“You haven’t slept at all since before the mission, have you? Doesn’t seem like you’ve showered, either. Please tell me you at least ate something.”

“Clint forced me to eat this morning.”

Bucky covers his face with his hand. “Oh my god, Steve, I’m fine. You didn’t need to sit here and not take care of yourself while I was out, sleep is fucking important. So is showering. Jesus, you smell, I can smell you from here. Please, go get in the damn shower and go to sleep.”

Steve smiles. “It’s good to have you back, Buck.”


	4. The Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Maddie: PROPOSAL DURING A BIG FIGHT WITH EXPLOSIONS IN THE BACKGROUND. AS CLICHE AS POSSIBLE
> 
> Hope you like it! :)

Bucky had been planning this day for weeks. He wanted to take Steve out to a nice place that he would like. Steve doesn’t really like much though, besides Bucky, so it took him almost a whole week just to figure out where to go. 

Then there was picking a day. Bucky thought going to the park would be great because Steve always likes to take pictures there to draw later. With it being outdoors, the weather is something Bucky needs to pay attention to. Rain would not be a good thing, and he wants to make sure the place isn’t going to be too crowded.

Finally, the day came, and Bucky acted like normal while they were in the park, pointing out things he thinks Steve would want to draw, and occasionally posing for an idea Steve had.

They get to the fountain in the middle of the park and they seem to be alone for the moment. Bucky stops in front of the fountain and gathers his thoughts.

“You okay?” asks Steve, feeling that something was up.

“Yeah, I just –” Bucky sighs and he puts his hands in his pockets. “We’ve been together now for, a long time. Even being frozen in two different places and the hydra brainwashing thing couldn’t keep us apart.”

Steve smiles, amused at Bucky's sudden confession. “Yeah, we sure have. Why?”

Bucky turns to look Steve in the eyes. “I don’t want to lose this, Steve. I don’t want to lose you.” He gets down on one knee, and Steve can’t help his involuntary step back, shocked.

Bucky pulls his hand out of his pocket and produces a ring box. “Steve, will you –” he is cut off by the fountain exploding.

Bucky covers his face with his arm to block any debris from the fountain coming his way, and he feels himself being pulled up. He starts to fight it but then realizes it’s just Steve. 

“Come on, Buck, we need to get out of here!”

They start to run as people emerge from out of nowhere with guns, chasing after them. They try and shoot Steve and Bucky, but with the speed the super soldiers have, the bullets easily miss.

As they approach the edge of the park, they see there are men waiting for them there, too. They start to fall, one by one. Steve looks over at Bucky and sees him reloading a pistol.

“Where the hell did you get that?” yells Steve as Bucky shoots down more of the men in front of them.

“I always carry this on me,” is his response. The last man goes down and Steve and Bucky leave the park, running as fast as they can to get back to the tower and away from the men.

“How come I never noticed you carry a gun until now?”

Bucky shrugs. “Maybe you don’t look hard enough.” They turn into an alley to take a minute and regain their sense of direction in the busy streets of New York.

Bucky throws a gun to Steve. “Here, have this one, since you don’t have your shield.”

Steve looks at him, eyes wide. “You had two guns on you?”

“And a ring, but I guess that kinda got ruined, didn’t it?” Bucky motions for Steve to follow him, and they leave out the other side of the alley, hopefully having lost the men.

“No, I thought it was cute.” Steve ducks as people scream and gunshots ring out. The men found them again.

Bucky turns his torso around and runs forward while shooting behind him. Steve is nowhere near Bucky’s level with a gun, so he makes sure Bucky doesn’t run into anything and shoots the occasional bad guy in front of them. 

It’s not long before Bucky runs out of ammo, but they are almost back to the tower. Bucky throws a knife that appeared out of thin air at someone and turns back around, managing to duck just in time as Tony in the Iron Man suit shoots down the remaining bad guys. Steve and Bucky run to stand behind him, panting and out of breath.

“You had a knife on you too? Where do you hide all this stuff?”

“I always have knives on me, Steve. At least four at all times. I really need to teach you how to look for these things.”

When all the guys have been taken care of, Tony turns around to face the pair, and the faceplate of his suit moves up. “What the hell happened out there?”

Steve doesn’t answer but instead pulls Bucky in for a kiss. It’s deep and passionate, and when Steve finally pulls away, he says, “Yes. My answer is yes.”

Bucky smiles and pulls him back in for another kiss, pulling the ring box out of his pocket again and slipping the ring onto Steve’s finger. 

Tony rolls his eyes and walks away, muttering, “Oh, thank you Tony for your help, we were running for miles away from some bad guys who attacked us and then totally didn’t ignore you when you asked us a question so we could make-out.”

When they break apart again, Steve rubs the back of his neck and says, “I have a confession.”

Bucky raises his eyebrow, and he can’t help but laugh when Steve pulls out a ring box.

“I guess you beat me to it, huh,” Steve says, a happy glint in his eyes.

Bucky smiles and says, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

Steve gets down on one knee anyways and opens the box. “James Buchanan Barnes, will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Only if you can stop being so formal about it, punk.”

Steve beams and stands back up, taking the ring and slipping it onto Bucky’s hand. It fits on the metal perfectly, and Bucky waves his hand a few times for good measure to make sure the ring isn’t going to slip right off.

Bucky and Steve kiss again. While things may not have gone quite according to Bucky’s plan, he still thinks the day was absolutely perfect.


	5. Love No Matter What

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by AJ: I'd really like Steve always making a point to gently hold and brush and touch Buck's metal arm lovingly once he realizes Bucky never uses it around Steve. Thank you!
> 
> I hope you like it :)

Steve was sitting at the counter, reading the newspaper, when Bucky comes in. He sits on Steve’s left and intertwines his hand with Steve’s.

“Whatcha readin?” he asks.

“A story about Peter. This newspaper really doesn’t like him.”

“What paper is it?”

“The Daily Bugle. They always have these insanely good pictures of him, and then use them to write about how much of a menace Spider-Man is.”

“Mind if I look at it?”

Steve sets it down on the counter. “Sure. I need to use the bathroom anyways.” Bucky untangles his hand from Steve’s and then picks the paper up.

When Steve gets back from the bathroom, Bucky is laughing at something. Steve sits back down next to him.

“What are you laughing at?” Steve asks with a smile on his face.

“I texted the kid to see if he knew about this. He said he does because he’s the one selling the paper his pictures.”

Steve laughs. “Are you serious?”

Bucky switches his phone from his metal hand to his normal hand and then hands it to Steve. It was such a simple gesture, but Steve was so focused on it he didn’t really read the texts. Why wouldn’t Bucky just use his left hand?

Bucky hands the newspaper back and Steve stares at it, thinking. How has he not seen this before? Bucky never uses his metal arm with Steve. Bucky leaves, and Steve is left by himself, thinking.  
~~~  
When the weather is nice, Bucky likes to walk around the city. Sometimes, he invites Steve. 

Today was one of those days. Steve decides he’s going to get Bucky to start using his left arm again. Steve follows behind Bucky as they walk out of Manhattan until the streets become less crowded and are clear enough that they can walk hand in hand.

This time, instead of letting Bucky stand on his left, Steve goes to Bucky’s left. He grabs Bucky’s hand and intertwines the cool metal fingers with his own.

Shocked by the sudden feeling in his hand, Bucky tries to pull away, but Steve holds firm. Bucky looks down at their hands, and then up to Steve, but Steve pretends not to notice, smiling and looking up at the buildings around them. Steve notices Bucky is a little tense after that, but he doesn’t try to pull his hand away again.  
~~~  
Steve does his best from there on out to stay on Bucky’s left whenever he can, so that he’s next to Bucky’s metal arm.

Bucky finally brings it up when the two of them are watching T.V. Instead of sitting to Bucky’s right, in his usual spot, he sits to Bucky’s left and snuggles into his side, forcing Bucky to wrap his arm around Steve.

“Why do you keep doing this?” he asks Steve.

Steve looks up at him. “Keep doing what?” he replies innocently. 

Bucky glares at him. “You know exactly what I mean, punk.”

Steve sits back up, but he keeps a hold of Bucky’s arm, not saying anything. 

Bucky sighs. “This. My arm. Why do you stay near it?”

Steve intertwines his fingers with Buckys. “What’s wrong with your arm?”

“It’s killed people, Steve. It’s a weapon. It’s nearly killed you.”

“Wrong answer,” says Steve, and presses a soft kiss on the top of Bucky’s hand. “It’s a part of you, not a weapon.”

“But Steve,” 

“No buts, Buck. It’s a part of you, and I love all of you, no matter what.” He presses another kiss against his hand.

Bucky sighs and leans his head against Steve’s shoulder, keeping his fingers intertwined with Steve’s. “Even if it’s killed dozens of people?”

Steve rests his head on top of Buckys. “Even then. You didn’t know what you were doing, they were in complete control. Which means they had control of your arm too.” He kisses the top of Bucky’s head.

“I guess there’s nothing I can say to convince you otherwise?”

“Nope. Like I said, love, no matter what.”


	6. Mission: Protect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Dinah: Angst with a happy ending in which Bucky treats Steve like he's his handler and Steve is heartbroken and lost because, no matter what they say, it's always Steve who followed Bucky (even in war, Buck was the tactical mind), not the other way around. Bonus: Bucky's always been an amazing sniper and the only one Steve trusts at his back. Angst, fluff, happy ending, hurt comfort, hugs... All the feels!!! Thank you so so so much!!!!!!!
> 
> I hope you like it! I managed to make myself cry while writing this (: The fluff at the end gets really cheesy too oops  
> Note: Set at the end of Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier wasn’t ready for a mission reset. He doesn’t recall the words to reset him being ‘the end of the line.’ But it reset anyways. Now, his previous kill mission falls off of the ship into the water below as the Soldier waits for the new mission parameters. 

He watches the man fall, and the new orders come. He doesn’t recall hearing them, but he jumps in after the man, now that his mission is to ‘protect’. The mission is sinking into the river, his shield a few meters away. He grabs the shield and then the man, swimming them both down the river and onto the shore. 

The Soldier’s human arm is dislocated. Dislocated by his new handler. He must have done something wrong for that to happen. In order to make sure it doesn’t happen again, he makes sure the man is breathing, and then leans against a tree to pop his arm back into place. Then he picks the man up and carries him through the streets of the city, back to the apartment he remembers shooting into.

He sets the man on the bed in the apartment and searches for a medical kit. He then tends to the man's wounds. Wounds he had inflicted. He really is doing terrible on this mission so far. The Soldier finds a position in the room where he can see all the room’s entrances and pulls a gun out, keeping watch to make sure no one gets to the man.

He stands waiting for two days, allowing himself an hour of sleep when he feels that staying up longer would be detrimental to his mission. Finally, the man in the bed stirs. He opens his eyes slowly and then stops when he spots the Soldier.

“Bucky?” the man asks. The Soldier wishes he would stop saying that. He does not know what Bucky is. 

The man sits up in bed and then stands up. The Soldier feels as if the man should not be up already, but he is not in the position to tell his handler what to do. The man walks over to him and stands close.

“How did we get here? Why are you here?”

The Soldier can answer these questions. “Mission reset. Former kill mission, now protect mission. Mission: protect handler.”

“Protect… handler?” says the man.

“Confirm.”

“And that’s … me?”

“Confirm.” The Soldier does not know why the man doesn’t know these things already.

The man sighs and runs his hands through his hair. “Do you know me?”

“Subject is mission and handler.”

“I’m Steve, Bucky. We used to live together.”

The Soldier tries to remember when he would have done this. “Unconfirmed,” he replies.

“Unconf– Bucky, please, stop talking like that.”

The Soldier takes this as an order to be quiet. They stare at each other for three and a half minutes, until the man – Steve, he said, turns away, frustrated. His phone, which is laying on the nightstand, rings. He picks it up.

“I – I just woke up,” he says to the other side of the phone. “No, I’m not lying. Where am I?” Steve glances back to the soldier. “Safe. I need some time alone, okay?” He hangs up the phone and then turns it off.

“Have you eaten anything, Bucky?”

The Soldier tilts his head, not understanding the need for that question.

Steve sighs. “Follow me.”

Orders. The Soldier can do that. He follows Steve out into the rest of the apartment. Steve opens the fridge and starts to look through it. The Soldier takes a position in the room where he can best protect Steve from.

Steve spends a few minutes heating something up that he found. He then sets two plates out, filling them both. The Soldier does not know why there are two plates, Steve just told the phone he wants to be alone.

“Come. Sit.” The Soldier does as he is told, even though it is an awful position to protect Steve from. He will have to make do if the need arises.

One of the plates is set down in front of the soldier. He looks up at Steve. 

“Eat. Please.” 

The Soldier picks up the fork and examines it. Steve made the food himself, so there’s a minimal chance the food has been poisoned. 

The Soldier eats the entire plate as Steve sits next to him and eats his. He was not aware that he was hungry until he started eating. He sees a glass of water in front of him. It's a risky move, to think it was meant for him, but he takes it anyways.

Once done eating, the Soldier sits and awaits further instructions. Steve stares at him, searching him up and down. 

He then sighs and asks, “How about some sleep? I think we could both use some right now.” He gets up and goes back to the bedroom. The Soldier follows. “I guess – oh, I don't know, where do you want to sleep?”

“The Soldier will stand watch,” he says, going back to his spot in the room.

“No, Buck –” Steve looks upset. “You need sleep too, okay? Here, I have an extra pillow and some blankets. You can sleep on the floor over there if you want.” He sets the pillow and blankets on the floor and then waits.

The Soldier takes his cue and sits down on them. He can still see all the entrances from the floor, and figures he will wake at the slightest noise, so he will allow some sleep to make his handler happy. 

Steve turns the light off and climbs into bed. “Goodnight, Buck.” The Soldier does not respond.  
~~~  
Steve is awake before the sunrise the next morning, which means the Soldier is too. He follows Steve around for his morning routine, including the bathroom. 

“If you have to follow me in here, at least turnaround.” The Soldier keeps his eyes trained on the door.

When Steve is finished his shower, he gives a jacket to the Soldier. Once he has on, Steve then leads him out of his apartment. They walk up the stairs until they reach the roof. 

Steve goes and sits down near the edge of the roof as the sun is rising. The Soldier stands behind him, scanning their surroundings to make sure no one is about to attack Steve. 

They stay up there for thirty-four minutes until Steve stands and turns back around. The soldier notices his eyes are red. Steve wipes his face with his sleeve and then gets close to the soldier.

“You – anything you want to do? You always did like watching baseball. Should I see if I can find a game?” The Soldier doesn’t respond. Steve deflates. “Or, we could, I dunno, what do you like to do now?”

The Soldier stares at him blankly. “The Soldier does not have any likes or dislikes. The Soldier only follows orders.”

Steve turns around, exasperated. The Soldier waits for two minutes and twenty-seven seconds until Steve turns back around, a stray tear rolling down his cheek.

“I – I can't. Can't do this without you.” Steve takes a couple of shallow breaths and then wipes his face again. He takes another breath, blowing it out fast. “Come on, Buck, we'll go watch some T.V.”

They go back down to the apartment and Steve sits on the couch, turning on the T.V. The Soldier stands behind the couch – it is the optimal spot in the room to watch the entrances. Steve puts on a cheesy romance movie. It distracts the Soldier from his mission. Every now and then, the Soldier finds himself watching the movie instead of keeping an eye on the entrances. Something about it seems – familiar to him, almost.

The movie is almost over when the Soldier speaks out. “Steve?”

Steve jumps off of the couch so fast he nearly knocks the table over. He pauses the movie and slows himself down, walking around at a normal speed to face the Soldier. “Yeah?”

The Soldier looks at him, thinking. “You used to be smaller.”

A small, hopeful smile spreads across Steve's face. “Yeah. I was.”

The Soldier thinks more before continuing. “You liked ice cream. But didn't have the money for it.”

Steve’s smile grows as he nods his head.

“So I – I took you out. Said – it was just for a walk, you needed to get outside.”

Steve's eyes filled with tears. “Yeah, Buck. I remember.”

The Soldier continues. “You – were mad I tricked you. That I spent money on you. We took the ice cream into the alley.” The Soldier stops, seeing Steve is crying. His face grows concerned.

Steve waves it off. “No, no. Continue, please.”

The Soldier hesitates, then says, “You made a mess. Got ice cream all over your face. And I helped you clean it off by –” The Soldier freezes, gaining the rest of the memory. On instinct, he leans into Steve, capturing Steve's lips with his. It’s short and wet due to Steve’s crying, but it shifts the Soldier’s viewpoint on the world.

Steve pulls away, tears of joy streaming down his face. “That was –”

“Our first kiss,” Bucky finishes. “I couldn’t help it, with the ice cream all over your face. You looked too kissable.”

“Bucky?” Steve asks, hopeful.

“Yeah, punk. It’s me.” He pulls him in for a hug, Steve’s tears quickly drenching Bucky’s shoulder. They stand there in each other's arms for a long time, making up for all the years they’ve lost.


	7. Never A Normal Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Michelle: A cliche stucky wedding with a fight in the middle
> 
> I hope you like it! <3

Steve brushes off his suit, worrying over wrinkles that only he can see. Natasha rolls her eyes. 

“You look fine, Steve. Quit it.”

Steve looks up at her. “You really think so?”

“Yes, Steve. Remember, I was the one that helped you pick it out.”

“Did you help Bucky with his too?”

“I'm pretty sure the only person I didn't help was Tony, and that's because he wouldn't let me. None of you have any sense of style.” Steve opens his mouth to protest, but Natasha quickly silences him. “No, you don't have a sense of style. You walk around looking like you really are a grandpa.”

Steve rolls his eyes, but silently thanks Natasha for helping to calm his nerves. 

“I have to go, don't start worrying over your suit again.” With that, she leaves, and Steve can hear music playing in the adjacent room.

The music changes and Steve takes a deep breath. He opens the doors to the church and everybody stands. All their superhero friends and a couple of ex S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are in the pews, while Tony, Natasha, Peter, and Clint stand up front amidst a lot of flower arrangements, all white and blue. Sam is up there too, but Steve doesn't notice him. Instead, his eyes go right to Bucky. He's already standing up there, a big smile plastered on his face. Steve smiles back as he takes in how good Bucky looks in the dark blue suit Natasha picked out for him. 

Steve walks up the aisle and takes his place next to Bucky, with Tony and Natasha behind him. Clint winks from behind Bucky, and Peter offers him a smile.

Sam steps up to Steve and Bucky. He winks at Steve. “Good afternoon everyone. We are gathered here to celebrate the wedding of Steve and James.”

Bucky glares at Sam, getting Steve to giggle. 

“Steve and James are happy you could make it today.” Sam shuffles his note cards for a few seconds too long. When Steve gives him a questioning glance, Sam glares at Peter. “You'll have to excuse me, someone made me drop my cards earlier and they're all out of order now.”

Peter adverts his gaze, and everyone in the church laughs. 

“Ah, screw it,” says Sam. He stuffs the note cards in his pocket. “If there's anyone who thinks these two shouldn't be together, speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

No one says anything, so Sam goes to continue, but then the stained glass window behind him shatters. Instinctively, Steve lifts his arm to cover himself from the raining glass, only to get his suit cut on a few shards of glass because he doesn't have his shield. 

Everyone stands up and looks to what remains of the window to see a man with four metal arms coming out of his back.

Peter's eyes grow wide. “Shit!” He scrambles away for cover.

“Peter Parker, where are you?” the man calls out into the church.

“Pete what did you do?!” Tony shouts, looking around for the kid. He doesn't get a response so he decides to ask again later. “Steve, the flowers next to you!”

Steve looks up at the big flower arrangement next to him. “What am I supposed to do with flowers, Tony?!”

“Just get them!”

Steve looks at them and thinks he sees the glint of metal in them. He reaches into the middle of it and pulls out…

“Tony why did you hide my shield in the flowers?!”

“You can never be too prepared! There's other stuff in the other flowers guys, besides Peter's, I couldn't find his –” Tony is cut off by a web being shot past him at the man. Peter pulls one of the metal arms towards him, throwing the man off balance. 

“Peter?” Clint asks, pulling his bow and quiver out of the flowers near him. “Where'd you get your suit?”

“I was, uh, wearing it underneath my other suit?”

“Peter!” exclaims Bucky, pulling a gun out from under his jacket. “Why were you wearing it?”

“You can never be too prepared!” he responds, echoing what Tony had just said. “Besides, you're the one carrying a gun on you!”

Steve throws his shield at one of the metal arms. “Why can't we just have one normal day?!”

A suit starts to assemble around Tony. “Finally, it took you long enough.” He hovers in the air, but before he can move any more, something else comes in through the window and tackles him into the far wall.

Sam, having found where Tony hid his wings, goes up to help Tony with this new flying guy. “Peter, care to introduce us to your friends?” he says sarcastically.

“Uhh, the one with the metal arms, I think he called himself Doctor Octopus? But I just call him Doc Ock. And, uhh…” He uses a web to pull himself across the room to see exactly who it is flying and fighting Sam and Tony. “Oh! This one is Vulture. Watch out for his feet, they have claws.”

Steve looks out into the church to see everyone else has knocked a few pews over as a barricade and are hiding behind it, most of them with guns shooting the two villains. Natasha was over there too, trying to keep Bruce calm so he doesn’t Hulk out.

Bucky shoots at Doc Ock as he runs towards him and grabs one of his metal arms, pulling hard. The man topples, and Bucky frantically looks around for help. Steve sees this and jumps onto the pile. The two of them do their best to restrain the four arms. 

Doc Ock tries to grab Steve with is normal arms, but when he gets close enough, Steve lets go of the metal arms and bashes at his head with his shield, rendering him unconscious.

Steve and Bucky start to tie the metal arms together so they won’t work anymore as Peter swings over and shoots a bunch of webs, and soon they have managed to restrain him enough to move their focus to the Vulture.

Steve looks up into the church ceiling to see Sam and Tony have each managed to grab one of the Vultures wings, and he was currently trying to shake them off. Peter shoots a web and it sticks to Vulture. He gestures to Bucky and Steve, and they help him pull down on the web as hard as they can. 

Sam and Tony let go of the wings at just the right time, so they aren’t pulled from the air with enough force to knock them out. The Vulture, on the other hand, isn’t as lucky and hits his head when he reaches the ground, and it knocks him out. Peter starts to restrain him with his webs as everyone else stands around, breathing hard, and coming out from hiding behind the pews.

“I am so sorry, this is all my fault,” says Peter once he finishes restraining the Vulture. “I should have known that not catching them while I was out yesterday would lead to something bad happening today. The ceremony was so nice too –”

Bucky cuts him off. “It’s okay, kid, it wasn’t your fault. These morons had it coming, attacking a building full of superheroes.” He looks over at the two villains covered in webs next to them. “How long do you think that webbing can hold up?”

Peter shrugs. “A few hours, tops?”

Bucky nods and grabs Steve’s arm, dragging him back up to the front of the church. “Good. That’s enough time to finish this, then, because I am not leaving here until we finish the ceremony.”

Steve smiles and sets his shield down on the ground. Everyone else moves to get back into their positions, being careful not to cut themselves on all the glass strewn around the floor. There are a few pews still intact and upright, so everyone moves to those pews. Tony leaves his suit sitting in a pew too, something that Bucky thinks is strange. 

Sam moves back to his spot in between Steve and Bucky, a bit of blood running down his cheek.

“Sam, you’re bleeding!” says Steve.

Sam waves his hand. “It’s nothing major, it can wait until we get this over with. Besides, you should see the amount of dirt on your face.”

Natasha clears her throat to get everyone back on track.

“Right, sorry. Uhh, let's just get to the vows then. Bucky?”

Bucky nods and faces Steve. “I, Bucky, take you, Steve, to be my lawfully wedded husband. I promise I will always have your back, no matter what happens. And I will always be with you, to the end of the line.”

Sam turns. “Steve?”

“I, Steve, take you, Bucky, to be my lawfully wedded husband. I promise to be there for you, through thick and thin, on the good days and the bad. And I, too, will always be with you, to the end of the line.”

Sam looks at them. “Okay, now you gotta hold hands.”

Steve smiles and takes Bucky’s hands in his, and Tony slips Sam a square box from his pocket.

“Steve, do you take Bucky to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to support him completely and love him unconditionally, so long as you both shall live?

“I do.”

Sam turns to Bucky. “Bucky, do you take Steve to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to support him completely and love him unconditionally, so long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

Sam opens the box to reveal the rings. “You’re supposed to say something here, but I lost the note cards somewhere along the course of that fight, and I didn’t memorize this part. Who cares, just put them on each other.”

Steve laughs as he takes one of the rings out of the box. He slips it onto Bucky’s metal hand. They had it specially made so it would stay on. Bucky then takes the other ring and slips it on Steve’s finger. 

They look into each other’s eyes as Sam says, “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and husband. Just go ahead and kiss already I know you’ve been waiting.”

Steve and Bucky lean in and kiss, and everyone in the church starts clapping.

Sam breaks them apart by saying, “Yeah, great, now you’re officially married. Who’s gonna take these guys to the police before the reception?”

Steve shrugs and Peter raises his hand. “It’s my fault they’re here, and I’m still in my suit anyways. I’ll go toss them down at the station and meet you guys back at base camp for the reception.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “What have I said about calling it base camp? And don’t think I’ve forgotten, I want to see you nice and early tomorrow so we can discuss exactly how these two men found out your secret identity.”

Peter gulps and then ties a web around the two still unconscious men, pulling them out of the broken window behind him.

Bucky looks at Steve and laughs, still holding hands. “Well, I guess we better make it to the reception before someone comes and blows the cake up. I still need to smear it all over your face.”

Steve laughs, and, still holding Bucky’s hand, walks with him back down the rubble-strewn aisle and out to the waiting limo.


	8. Not A Weapon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by AJ: I have a soft spot for shrinkyclinks... How do you feel about it? Because I'd really like a story in which Erskine doesn't exist so Steve never goes to war, but Bucky, made stronger by Zola's serum, manages to escape with his men anyway. When the Americans discover he was experimented on, they use him to win the war. Except since he's partly in Winter Soldier mode, they don't consider him a hero (even if he probably is) but a secret weapon. I know this is a long premise, but you don't need to focus on it unless you want to.  
> I'd just really like a post-war reunion between the boys with protective skinny Steve not letting anyone make Bucky feel like he's less than human. Thank you!
> 
> Honestly I had to google what a shrinkyclink was, so I hope I did it justice! And you can ask for as many requests as you want, I don't mind :)

When Bucky was drafted into the war, he was just glad it wasn’t Steve. The men overseas were dying all the time, something Steve didn’t seem to understand. He played it off to Steve as if he was excited, but he was actually terrified.

He shipped out with promises from Steve that he would stay safe. Bucky promised he would come back.

Bucky was right to fear the war. Not long into his time over, a bomb went off near him, taking his arm. Bucky lost consciousness upset he would break his promise to Steve. He thought he was dead. His unit was then captured, taken as prisoners to work in a factory. Bucky woke up in a lab, finding himself restrained to a table, and with a new arm.

Bucky won’t talk about what they did to him with anyone. He doesn’t want to share. All he does share is that one of the scientists slipped up, and his instincts helped him escape, taking out the factory and saving around four hundred prisoners single-handedly.

It was obvious Bucky had been experimented on when they got back to camp. If the arm wasn’t obvious enough, Bucky was stronger than an average man now. He also had trouble making decisions on his own and was keen to follow orders.

The army took advantage of this and started to use Bucky however they could. They sent him out on mission after mission, not hearing a single complaint from him. All of his missions were too risky for a normal person, or just more than one person, but he came back every time, having successfully completing whatever he was supposed to do. He had a promise to keep, after all. 

Having Bucky changed the course of the war, letting the Allies win. Bucky felt sick about it: he was not given any credit for anything he had done and had been referred to as a secret weapon on multiple occasions.

He sits on the plane ride home, brooding. In his letters to Steve, he hadn’t mentioned the experiments, trying to keep everything positive. Now, he was worried that was all anyone would see him as anymore. A weapon. He dreads stepping off of the plane, not wanting to see the smile slide off of Steve’s face when he realizes the person he sent off wasn’t coming back. Just a weapon in the body of that man. 

Bucky lets everyone else get off of the plane first, trying to delay seeing Steve again. He can’t stay forever though, so he slings his bag over his shoulder and trudges off of the plane. 

He sees Steve scanning the soldiers for Bucky before he notices him. They lock eyes, and instead of the smile sliding off of Steve’s face like Bucky was expecting, it grew wider. Once Bucky reaches Steve, Steve pulls him in for a short hug, the only thing they can get away with in public.

“It’s good to see you, jerk,” says Steve.

Bucky forces a smile. “Glad to see you didn’t die, punk.”

They take a taxi back to their apartment, Steve excitedly detailing what he’s been doing while Bucky was gone. Bucky’s only half listening though. How is Steve going to react when he tells him everything?

Steve leads him into their apartment and gives him space to unpack.

“I managed to scrape together a few coins to get some extra food so you could have a nice meal, now that you’re finally home. I’ll get started on that, come find me in the kitchen when you’re done.” He stands on his toes and presses a small kiss on Bucky’s cheek, and then leaves the room.

Bucky brings his hand up to his cheek, feeling the spot Steve kissed. He’s been given orders though, so he unpacks his bag and changes out of his uniform into a long sleeved shirt. He then finds Steve in the kitchen and sits down at the table.

Steve looks back at Bucky. “You cold? You’re still wearing your gloves.”

Bucky doesn’t answer, and Steve frowns, moving back to the food. When it’s done, he fills two plates, making sure Bucky had more food than he does. 

“Here, a nice homemade meal for you.”

Bucky takes the plate form him. “Thanks.”

They eat together wordlessly, Steve studying Bucky the entire time. 

Steve finishes his food and sighs. “What gives, Buck?”

Bucky sets his fork down. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not an idiot, Buck.” Steve looks Bucky in the eyes and they’re full of compassion. “You can tell me anything. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“Come on Buck, tell me. Please.”

Bucky sighs and takes his gloves off. When the left one comes off, Steve's eyes grow wide. He gets up and circles around the table, and takes Bucky’s metal hand in his. He feels up Bucky’s wrist to see how far it goes up while saying, “What happened?”

Bucky moves his collar over slightly so Steve can see that it's his whole arm. He opens his mouth, and for the first time, everything comes out. Steve listens intently as Bucky tells him the horrors of the lab, and how he was treated when he got out. He tells Steve how he felt, being used as a weapon, and how his promise to Steve was the only thing that kept him going. How, if he hadn’t, he's not sure he would have made it home.

When he's finished, tears have filled both his and Steve’s eyes. Steve moves closer to Bucky and sits in his lap, his small frame fitting in between Bucky’s arms. 

Bucky can’t hold his tears anymore and leans into Steve's shoulder, letting them fall against his shirt. Steve lets him, holding onto him and rubbing up and down his metal arm. He shifts slightly in Bucky’s lap and moves his arm to wrap around Bucky, rubbing soft circles on his back.

Steve sits there until Bucky is done, pulling his face away from Steve’s shoulder. It’s red and covered in tears, but Steve leans in and presses a soft kiss against his lips.

“If anyone treats you like that again, I will fight them.”

Bucky looks at Steve. “You don’t need to do that.”

Steve kisses him again. “I will. And you can’t stop me.” Another kiss is pressed against his lips. “I won’t let anyone treat you any less than you deserve.” Another kiss. “And you deserve everything.”

Bucky rolls his eyes, trying to push away from Steve, but Steve holds firm, even though he is so much smaller. 

“Steve,” Bucky says, looking at him pleadingly.

“No,” says Steve. “You are not a weapon. You are my best guy, and I will do anything for you.”

Bucky looks at him with a small grin on his face. “Even fighting someone four times your size?”

“I will fight the entire army single-handedly if it means treating you the right way. And I won’t let you stop me either.”

“Oh, I believe it,” Bucky responds, setting his head back on Steve’s shoulder. They sit like that for a few more minutes. 

“Thank you,” mutters Bucky into Steve’s ear.

“Any time,” comes Steve’s soft response, and they spend the rest of the night in each other’s arms.


	9. Rainy Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Liar Princess: Fluff Bucky and Steve have found themselves in the middle of rain so they do the most craziest and cliche thing ever. They decide to dance in the rain and who knows they might kiss in the end
> 
> This kind of got ... out of hand. I hope you like it!

New York, 1935

Steve and Bucky are walking outside when it starts to rain. They both look up at the sky. 

Steve giggles and pulls Bucky into the alley next to them. “Come on, Buck, let's dance!”

Bucky sighs. “No, Steve.”

Steve pouts. “Why not, jerk?”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Because, punk, you stay out here, you’re gonna get sick. Come on, we need to get inside.”

Steve begrudgingly follows Bucky back to their apartment, complaining all the way back. Bucky makes it up to him by making his favorite food for dinner.

Somewhere in Europe, 1944

Light fades fast in the mountains, so the Howling Commandos set up camp early. Steve sits apart from the rest of the group, looking out at the landscape in front of him.

“Hey, Steve,” Bucky calling him snaps Steve out of his thoughts.

He turns around to see Bucky walking over to him. “Yeah, Buck?”

Bucky sits next to him. “You okay?”

Steve looks back out over the hills. “Yeah. Just enjoying the view.”

Bucky looks at Steve. “Yeah, it is a pretty good view.”

Steve looks over at Bucky. “Better than the view from our apartment, that’s for sure.”

Bucky chuckles and leans against Steve, still not used to the fact that he can. After sitting there for a few minutes, it starts to rain. They both look up at the sky, and Bucky starts to laugh.

Steve says with a smile, “Come on, let’s dance!”

“Okay, okay,” says Bucky, letting Steve pull him up off of the ground.

It’s a little awkward because Steve doesn’t know how to dance properly, but they make do, spinning each other around, having fun. 

One of the Commandos wolf whistles and Steve and Bucky stop dancing abruptly. They look over at the group, Steve growing red. 

“Oh, come on, Steve, we knew you two were a thing already,” says Gabe.

“Yeah,” replies Dugan. “Makes sense why Bucky would always turn down all those girls. He already had one of his own.” He wiggles his eyebrows. Bucky rolls his eyes and flips him off.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, we don’t mind,” says Morita. 

“Yeah,” Dugan cuts back in, “just don’t wake us up when you’re fonduing.”

Steve turns away at that, red as a tomato. The rest of the Commandos laugh as Bucky launches himself at Dugan, tackling him to the ground. Steve has to pull Bucky off of him and spends the rest of the night keeping the two of them apart.

New York, 2012

Steve is out for a run, fueled by adrenaline from his latest nightmare. Thunder rolls, and it starts to rain. Steve looks up at the sky and sighs. He goes back inside.

New York, Present Day

Bucky throws a jacket on as well as gloves, to hide his arm. Steve looks over at him and smiles. 

“You ready, Buck?”

He nods, and Steve leads him down to the street outside. They hold hands as they walk down the street, glad they don’t have to hide it anymore. They’re trying to get Bucky used to crowds again, so they go for short walks around the neighborhood at least once a week.

Steve takes him over to the park, trying to see if Bucky can stand a few minutes longer than last week.

Bucky looks up as it starts to rain. Steve looks up as well. 

“We can go back if you want,” says Steve, starting to walk away. Bucky doesn’t move though, so Steve stops, waiting.

“Dance with me,” Bucky says, and Steve can’t help the smiles from spreading across his face.

Bucky pulls him close and they keep their hands intertwined, swaying back and forth in slow circles. Bucky leans his head against Steve’s chest. 

Steve leans down and presses a kiss on the top of Bucky’s soaked hair. Bucky moves his head to look up into Steve’s blue eyes and closes the distance, pressing a long kiss against his lips as they continue to sway back and forth.


	10. Cheater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Steve is a big cheater when it comes to card games and only Bucky knows

Tony looks up from his tablet to the other people in the room, bored. “Why don’t we play a game?”

Natasha groans. “For the last time, I am not playing seven minutes in heaven, you can't convince me.”

Tony waves his hand. “No, no, that a party game, not a lazy day sitting around day. What about Blackjack?”

Steve looks up from his sketchbook. “You guys still play that?”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Yes, we still play card games from time to time. You in?”

Steve closes his sketchbook. “Sure.”

“I’m out,” Bucky responds immediately.

That sparks everyone's interest.

Clint leans forward in his seat. “What’s wrong, Bucky, afraid you’ll upset your boyfriend? I’m in.”

“I’ve learned my lesson. I don’t play card games with Steve anymore. Unless we’re teaming up or something.”

“That’s funny,” says Natasha. “I don’t see Steve as a sore loser. Deal me in.”

Bucky shakes his head. “It’s not that. You guys just don’t understand.”

Tony finds a deck of cards. “So, everyone’s in but the sourpuss?”

Bucky leans back against the couch as Tony shuffles the cards. 

“We’ll go around in a circle for dealing, everyone can take a few turns at a time. Do we want to do bets? I definitely have some chips laying around.”

Everyone agrees, and Tony goes to find the chips.

Steve glances over at Bucky, who rolls his eyes. He knows what’s about to happen.

“Okay Jarvis, keep track of who owes who what.”

“Of course, sir.”

Tony splits the chips up, corresponding with how much each person is willing to put in.

Tony deals a few rounds, Steve losing every single one. Clint raises an eyebrow at Bucky because there’s no way he would have sat out just for this. Bucky just shakes his head, amused that anyone thinks they can win against Steve.

The deck gets passed to Natasha then, and Steve manages to win one of the rounds she’s dealt. Everyone watches as Steve’s pile keeps dwindling down, not winning any of Clint’s.

“Here man,” Clint says as he passes the deck over to Steve.

“Thanks.” Steve takes the deck and begins to shuffle. Bucky keeps a close watch on his hands.

Steve deals and he wins with a perfect twenty-one. “Hey, look at that!” he says with a gleam in his eye as he takes everyone's bets on the round.

Tony waves it off. “Yeah, yeah. Lucky round. Go again.”

Steve deals another nine rounds, winning with a perfect twenty-one every time. Bucky watches as each round, everyone’s faces fall a little more, and he laughs silently to himself.

Steve goes to pass the deck to Tony, but he shakes his head. ‘No, keep going. You’re having one hell of a lucky streak right now, I don’t want to break it.”

Steve nods and deals again, winning with a perfect twenty one again.

Every deal, Steve wins with a perfect twenty-one. Natasha, like Bucky, has started to watch Steve’s hands, to figure out how he’s doing it. Everyone but Steve is now scowling.

Clint is the first to run out of money. He leans back against the couch, shaking his head. “Man, I don’t know how you do it. To think Captain America just stole all of my money. No one would believe me.” He watches the next deal, but when Steve wins again, Clint stands. “I’m going to go find some food. Have fun losing,” he says to Natasha on the way out.

She’s the next one to go. “Well, Bucky, I see why you don’t play card games with Steve anymore.” She stands. “I’m gonna go find Clint, make sure he’s not getting into trouble.”

Bucky nods in acknowledgment, still watching Steve. Tony starts cursing every time he loses.

“Okay, let’s settle this,” he says before Steve can deal the next turn. “There is no possible way you can keep this streak going any longer. Let’s both go all in on one more round.”

Steve smiles. “Sure,” he says, pushing all of his chips into the center of the table. He deals again, and Tony laughs as he says, “Hah, twenty! Beat that!”

Steve simply reveals a perfect twenty one again. The smile falls off of Tony’s face as he sees this. Without another word, he stands and leaves the room.

Steve turns to Bucky with a devilish grin. “Well, that was fun.”

Bucky shakes his head and helps Steve clean up the game. “I still don’t know how you do it. I watched you the entire time, and even I couldn’t see how the hell you were cheating.”

Steve plays the innocent role. “Cheating? Me?”

Bucky shoves Steve back down into the couch. “Oh, can it, punk, you were cheating and you know it.”

Steve laughs and then looks to Bucky. “Well, I did just get a ton of money out of it.”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. I’m sure anyone could do what you did if you share how you did it,” responds Bucky, hoping to get an answer out of Steve.

Steve simply smiles at him and says, “A cheater never reveals his secrets.”


	11. Always

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Liar Princess: Soulmate AU Bucky believes that his soulmate will never lover because of what hes done, but he didn't know that his soulmate was right in front of him and that his soulmate is madly in love with him.
> 
> I hope you enjoy, I had a blast writing this!

Soulmates. What a strange concept. Everyone says that you know who your soulmate is when you see them for the first time. It was extremely rare for one to not find their soulmate, only a few cases have been reported.

Bucky thinks everyone’s insane for believing in this. For him, he thinks it’s the exact opposite. The first time he meets Steve Rogers, he knows there is no way this man could be his soulmate. 

The skinny kid had gotten himself into a fight, and Bucky thought there was an unfair advantage, so he broke it up. When Bucky helped him off of the ground and he got a look a the clear blue eyes for the first time, he nearly fell into them.

“I’m Bucky,” he says, too focused on taking in how perfect the man in front of him looked.

“Steve,” he responds. “Thanks for your help.”

Bucky knew Steve wasn’t his soulmate, but couldn’t help finding himself so desperately attracted to him. He hangs out with Steve a lot, more so to make sure those gorgeous eyes never leave his life. When Steve finds him in the lab during the war, Bucky can’t keep his eyes off of him as they run through the factory. He’s so – muscular now. Bucky blames their experiments on him for his nonstop staring.

Then he falls from the train and watches as the blue eyes of his friend fade into the distance. _Of course Steve isn’t my soulmate,_ he thinks. _You can’t have a soulmate when you’re dead._

Then Bucky comes to, back in another lab. They torture him, but he holds on for as long as possible, clinging on to his memories of Steve as they try to brainwash him.

He is taken out of cryo again and again, the only thing he can remember is a particular shade of blue he is rather fond of. He doesn’t know where he’s seen it. Not until he gets a good look at the man he’s fighting in the middle of a street and sees his eyes. 

“Bucky?” the man asks.

“Who the hell is Bucky?” he responds, confused that the color of his eyes match the only thing he can remember.

When the helicarriers fall, and Steve finds Bucky again, Bucky is starting to remember. He goes back home with Steve, finally remembering the blue eyes he used to love.

Bucky didn’t have a soulmate. His soul was as black as night after the countless murders he committed, who would ever love him?  
~~~  
Steve knows from the moment he sees Bucky that he is his soulmate. He finds him on the ground, being beaten in by the latest group of bullies he tried to pick on. 

“I’m Bucky,” he says, and Steve watches his red lips part as he talks. Man, does he want to kiss them.

“Steve,” he says instead, feeling it’s rude to kiss someone without their permission first. “Thanks for your help.”

To Steve, Bucky is amazing. He follows after him wherever he goes and does everything he can to be more like him. The only complaint Steve has is Bucky doesn’t seem to like him back. Maybe Bucky doesn’t see him that way? Maybe the soulmate bond is only one-sided? It was extremely rare, but there were a handful of cases reported to be that way.

Steve decides he’ll stick with Bucky no matter what. When he frees him from the factory, he notices Bucky can’t keep his eyes to himself. He hopes that means something, but Bucky never mentions it.

When Bucky falls from the train, Steve is devastated. Why was he still alive, but his soulmate wasn’t? So he develops the reckless plan to defeat Hydra once and for all and doesn’t care about crashing the plane. Maybe then he’ll be able to see Bucky again.

When he wakes up in the twenty-first century, his first thoughts are of Bucky. He finds out that he managed to survive the crash and has been frozen for seventy years. He’s upset because he knows he won’t find love here, not when his soulmate died decades ago.

When Hydra appears again, Steve feels a familiarity as he fights the man with the metal arm. He doesn’t know what it is though, so he does everything he can to knock the mask off of the man's face.

Steve stops, dead in his tracks. “Bucky?”

“Who the hell is Bucky?” comes his response, then followed with a look of confusion and possibly recognition in his eyes.

Steve takes that reaction with him all the way to the helicarriers, certain he could wake Bucky up. He won’t kill the man he’s loved all his life.

It takes a few weeks before Steve finds him again and brings him home. He helps him get back on his feet, and a few months later, he sounds almost like the old Bucky again.  
~~~  
One day, they were sitting on their couch, watching a cooking competition on the TV, when Bucky suddenly asks, “Did you ever find your soulmate?”

Steve looks over at him, conflicted. “What?” he asks, stalling for time to think.

“You and Peggy were pretty close back in the day, but you said she wasn’t your soulmate, right? So, have you found yours?”

Steve thinks for a few seconds longer before saying, “It’s – complicated.”

Bucky nods his head.

Steve, not wanting to end the conversation, blurts out, “Have you found yours yet?”

Bucky snorts self deprecatingly. “Yeah. Right.”

Steve pauses the TV to look at him. “What do you mean, Buck?”

“I mean, why would I have a soulmate? I’ve done all these awful things, my soul is probably as black as death by now. Who’s soul could possibly match with mine?”

“Come on, Buck, you don’t mean that.”

Bucky looks over to Steve. “Yes, I do. There’s no one out there who fucking loves me, okay? So be glad you at least have something to be able to say it’s complicated.”

Steve moves over on the couch until he’s right next to Bucky, legs almost touching. “Bucky, that isn’t true. There’s – There’s definitely someone out there who loves you, Buck.”

Bucky turns to tell Steve off about it but stops in his tracks when he locks eyes with Steve, seeing all the compassion hiding in them.

They stare at each other for a few seconds before Bucky clears his throat. He responds in a low tone, “If someone did love me, they’d be a damn fool.”

Steve can’t hold back anymore and closes the distance between him and Bucky, capturing his lips in a kiss. Bucky turns rigid, shocked.

When Steve pulls away, he says, “You did always say I was a bit of a fool.”

“But – But Steve,” says Bucky, “What about your soulmate?”

“You are my soulmate, Buck. I’ve known from the moment we first met. If you don’t feel the same, I understand, but –”

Steve is cut off by Bucky pulling him in for another kiss. Steve is shocked but then melts into the kiss.

They pull away, gasping for air, and rest their foreheads against each other.

“The first time I saw you–” starts Bucky. “I really thought the world was wrong. The feeling I had – I thought, this man is too perfect. There’s no way he’s my soulmate. But that didn’t stop me from – from falling in love with him.”

Steve smiles and kisses Bucky’s forehead. “I love you too, Buck. Always have. Always will.”


	12. Anchor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt by liketwinstars: I'm awful at giving prompts, but I have so many feels about CA:Civil War, and I'm sure you can help :) maybe some hurt/comfort after Bucky wakes up from cryo, and Steve never leaves Bucky's side because is so afraid he'll lose him again? Thanks!
> 
> I - honestly don't know what happened. I can't explain why this chapter turned this way. I hope you like it!

Steve has decided to visit Wakanda again. Sam suggested otherwise, saying, “You’re just going to make puppy eyes at Bucky in that chamber and make the locals feel bad for you. Stay here.” Steve ignored him.

When he steps off of the plane he is greeted by T’Challa.

“Greetings, Captain,” he says, extending his hand. 

Steve takes it and shakes it. “Good to see you, T’Challa.”

Steve follows him into the palace and they go down to the labs. T’Challa has to do other things, so he leaves Steve to find Shuri.

“Steve!” she says from across the lab when she sees him. She walks over to him with a big smile on her face.

Steve can’t help but smile back. “Hey, Shuri.”

“Here to see your boyfriend again?”

Steve’s cheeks grow pink and he nods. 

Shuri nods too. “Come on, we moved him.”

Shuri leads Steve back through the palace to their hovercrafts and takes one of them out of the city into the farmland. Steve is a little confused, but he knows not to underestimate Wakanda, so he stays silent. They stop just outside of a small farm, with a couple of goats out on the lawn. 

They stop off of the hovercraft and some of the goats start to bleat. 

“Shuri, what are we doing here?” Steve asks, no longer able to hold his questions in. 

She simply smiles at him and calls in the direction of the hut, “Bucky?”

Steve’s entire face lights up like a Christmas tree a few seconds later when Bucky ducks through the door of the hut. He locks eyes with Steve and smiles. “Hey, Punk.”

Steve practically runs to him and envelops him in a hug. Bucky laughs and wraps his arm around him. Steve loosens the hug enough to move back a little so he can kiss Bucky.

Shuri clears her throat and Steve pulls away from Bucky. “I’ll leave you two alone for a while. I’ll come back later.”

Bucky nods. 

“Thank you, Shuri,” Steve says. 

“Of course.” She walks back over to the hovercraft.

Steve turns back to Bucky, still holding his hand. “How long have you been back out?”

Bucky shrugs. “A few weeks? Shuri said you’d most likely be visiting soon, so we didn’t tell you.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t let Sam talk me out of visiting for a few days again.”

“Again? You mean you’ve been visiting me while I was sleeping?”

Steve blushes slightly and opens his mouth to answer, but something hard hits his leg and distracts him. He looks down and sees a goat, which jumps again and headbutts Steve again.

Bucky follows his gaze down and lets go of Steve’s hand to pick the goat up. “Steve, stop it.” He stands back up with the struggling goat under his arm to see Steve’s confused expression.

“You named your goat Steve?”

“I named one of my goats Steve.” Bucky looks at the goat under his arm. “This one likes to headbutt everything except for me, so I thought it was fitting.”

Steve laughs. “Okay, I guess I deserve that.”

Bucky carries goat Steve as he shows Steve around his little farm. After a while, Bucky sits down in the grass and lets goat Steve back down. Steve sits down next to him and throws his arm around his shoulder.

“So,” Steve says, “Who are your other goats?”

Bucky points to one eating a small patch of grass. “That’s Shuri. She’s either nice and quiet or loud and annoying. There’s no in-between.”

Steve nods. “Sounds like Shuri.”

Bucky looks around again before continuing. “There’s one named Natasha, she always seems to be hiding and if she isn’t, you almost never hear her.”

Steve jumps as something lands on his head. A goat’s bleat rings out in his ears. “Is this Natasha?” he asks Bucky.

Bucky looks over at him and laughs. “No, that’s Sam. He likes to climb on top of things and then jump back down. His favorite spot is the tree. I still don’t know how he climbs it.”

“Oh really?” Steve says, trying to be careful so the goat doesn’t fall. “I bet Sam will love that if I tell him.”

“I don’t care what he thinks, go ahead and tell him.” Bucky stands and tries to get Sam off of Steve’s head, but Sam jumps away before Bucky can touch him, landing on the ground and running over to goat Steve. Bucky instead holds his hand out to help Steve up. 

“Where to now?” Steve asks.

“Now I should probably fill the feeding troughs before Shuri rips out all the grass. You’re welcome to head on inside, I can do it myself.”

Steve doesn’t go inside, instead following Bucky around as he fills the troughs for the goats, watching Sam try and climb goat Steve and promptly getting headbutted by the latter.

Steve looks down when he hears a bleat near him to see another goat staring up at him. “You must be Natasha.”

She lightly bumps her head against Steve’s leg and then trots over to Bucky for some food. 

Goat Steve realizes there’s food and runs over to Bucky, repeatedly headbutting the trough as Bucky fills it. “Steve, stop, last time you did this you knocked it over and got food everywhere.”

Steve steps in and picks up goat Steve, holding him as he struggles. Steve starts to stroke his back, and goat Steve immediately starts to calm down, resting his head against Steve’s arm. 

Bucky looks at the pair and shakes his head. “Well, at least goat you likes you.” He finishes filling the trough and Steve lets goat Steve back on the ground to eat.

Steve follows Bucky back into his little hut and watches Bucky as he starts a fire in the fireplace for light. Bucky then sits down on the couch and Steve sits next to him, taking a hold of his hand.

“Okay, what’s up?” Bucky asks Steve.

Steve raises an eyebrow, saying, “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been unusually clingy today. Like, following me and touching me as much as possible.”

Steve shrugs. “I guess it just – doesn’t seem real, you know? I feel like I’m in a dream, and any moment I’m going to wake up and you really did die.” Steve lowers his voice. “Sometimes I’m worried all of this might be a dream, and I might wake up back in 1940’s Brooklyn, a skinny little twig sick in bed.”

Bucky rubs his thumb along Steve’s hand, soothing him. "I know. It’s all so unreal, you know? Both of us living to see over a hundred.” Bucky shifts his hand and says, “If we really were in a dream, would I be able to do this?” He pinches Steve’s hand hard, and Steve pulls his hand back in shock. 

“Ow! That hurt, jerk!”

Bucky smirks. “But you felt it, so this can’t be a dream.” Steve glares at him. 

With is hand now freed, Bucky reaches over to the table next to him and pulls a strip of cloth from a blanket sitting there. “Use this when I’m not here to hurt you. Hold your arm out.”

Steve does as he is told and Bucky wraps the fabric around his wrist, using his teeth to help tie it off. 

Steve looks at it. “What is this for?”

“If you’re ever afraid I’m not actually alive, you just have to remember that I put it there. Use it as your anchor to prove this isn’t a dream.”

Steve smiles and kisses Bucky. “Thank you,” he murmurs.

“Of course.”  
~~~  
“What the hell is that?” Sam asks Steve, seeing his bracelet for the first time since he left Wakanda. 

Steve smiles down at it and says, “It’s my anchor, to help keep me grounded.”

Sam looks at him for a few seconds before continuing with an, “O-kay, whatever. Now, what were you saying about those goats?”


	13. A Bolt and A Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Liar Princess: Fluff Let's just do it simple Steve proposes to Bucky and then the wedding day comes and everyone is excited to see these 2 get married.
> 
> Hahaha - I may have forgotten you said fluff when I was writing this? Cause this is definitely not all fluff. I'm not good at leaving angst out of it lol. I hope you enjoy anyways!
> 
> CW: Ig you can kind of say suicidal-ish? It's just Steve giving reason to crashing that damn plane so I'll put this here just in case

New York, A Few Weeks Ago

“Hey, I think this belongs to you.” Steve tosses something small to Bucky, who catches it and examines it. He slips the ring onto his finger and then looks up at Steve. “You know, we still haven’t made it official.”

Steve sits down next to Bucky. “Do you want to?”

Bucky nods. “Let’s make it official, Steve. Let’s get married.”

Brooklyn, 1941

“What are we doing here, Steve?” Bucky asks, letting the scrawny man pull him along through the city. 

Steve simply turns around and smiles. “You’ll see.” He drags Bucky out to the docks. The sun is setting on the harbor.

Bucky looks around and repeats, “What are we doing here?”

Steve turns to look at Bucky. “You’re shipping off soon, so I wanted to do something special.”

“There’s nothing special about the docks, Steve. Unless it’s the sunset?” Bucky turns to look out over the water. “It does seem kind of romantic. Almost makes me think … you’re going to…” The sentence dies in Bucky’s mouth as he watches Steve get down on one knee. Bucky turns to face Steve again.

“Bucky, we’ve been together for a long time now, and I know you’re shipping out soon. I wanted to make a promise, a promise that I am yours until the end of the line.” He pulls a box out of his pocket and reveals a simple silver ring, the best he could afford. “Bucky, I want to ask, will you marry me?”

Bucky smiles and extends his hand. “Yes, you punk.”

Steve smiles back and slips the ring on Bucky’s finger, and is then pulled up into a kiss by Bucky. 

Bucky looks down on the ground and picks up a stray bolt. “Here, you wear this. I’ll get you a real one when I have the money.”

Steve holds his hand out, and Bucky slips the small bolt easily onto his small finger. They then kiss again, not ready to leave each other.

Europe, 1944

Steve and Bucky sit apart from the rest of the Commandos, happy to be back together. 

“What happened to the bolt?” Bucky asks, holding Steve’s hand.

“It was too small after the serum, I couldn’t put it back on. So it’s right here.” He pulls out his dog tags, and on the chain sits the bolt Bucky had given him.

Bucky frowns at it and then slips his ring off, putting it on Steve.

“What was that for?” Steve asks.

“I don’t want any stray girls or guys thinking you’re still available. I trust you can keep it safe until I buy you one. Besides,” he leans in and kisses Steve. “I don’t need to wear a ring for you to know I’m yours.”

“Stop necking over there and come help us with this damn fire!” Dugan calls over. Bucky rolls his eyes and Steve smiles, and they help each other up.

Somewhere Over The Atlantic, 1945

Steve knows he more than likely has enough time to figure out how the plane works to be able to change its route, but he doesn’t care.

“I gotta put her in the water,” he tells Peggy, running his thumb over the ring on his finger. He doesn’t listen to her protests as he points the plane down toward the ice.

He pulls his hand up and kisses the ring, muttering to himself, “I’ll be with you soon, Buck.” The plane hits the ice, and Steve’s vision grows dark.

New York, 2013

Steve no longer wears the ring on his finger in public. He gets too many questions about it, and he almost lost it fighting the Chitauri. He promised he would keep it safe. So he still wears his dog tags and added the ring next to his bolt. He takes the ring out and spins it on his finger when he needs support, or when he misses Bucky. He pulls it back out a lot.

Washington D.C., 2014

Bucky grabs the collar of Steve’s suit, pilling his hand back to punch him again. And again. And again. His eyes drift when he sees Steve’s dog tags peeking out, spotting the bolt and the ring. His fist falters, and then Steve falls down into the river below.

New York, Present Day

“Finally,” says Tony, helping Steve straighten his tie. “We all thought we were going to have to drag the two of you out to the church ourselves.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “I know, Tony, it’s not like you’ve been saying that almost every day for the past few weeks, ever since we told you we wanted to get married.”

Tony shakes his head. “Whatever. You ready to go?” 

Steve nods and follows Tony to the front of the church, where Tony takes his place in front of the altar. 

Steve watches as everyone finishes filtering into the church and the procession starts. Finally, it gets to Bucky. He walks down the aisle by himself, his hair pulled back in a bun. 

Steve locks eyes with Bucky and they both smile, the happiest they have ever been. 

Bucky takes his place next to Steve and Tony starts with the ceremony.

“So, obviously we’re all here to see these two love-struck idiots finally get married.”

Bucky rolls his eyes, but the smile can’t be wiped off of his face.

Tony continues. “If any of you have an issue with these two getting hitched, I suggest you stay silent because I guarantee you won’t be safe anymore.” No one says anything. “Good. Now, let’s cut all this boring shit out of the script, who cares… here we go. Bucky do you take Steve to be your husband?”

“I do,” he says, winking at Steve.

“And Steve, do you take Bucky to be your husband?”

“I do.”

Sam steps up from next to Steve and gives Tony the rings. “Okay, put these on each other.”

Bucky picks up one of the rings and slides it onto Steve’s finger. He had it custom made to look similar to a bolt. 

Steve smiles and then picks up the original silver ring that has had a few modifications so it can be seen on Bucky’s hand, and then slips it over the cool metal. 

“Okay, good. Now by the power that was for some reason vested in me, I pronounce you husband and husband. You may now kiss your husband."

Steve and Bucky lean into each other and kiss. All of their friends stand and start clapping. Steve and Bucky pull apart, smiling at each other, finally being able to call each other their husband.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just made a tumblr, come follow me if you want!! :)  
> https://pearlll09.tumblr.com


	14. Don't Kiss The Cook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: I have a head-canon that Bucky loves to bake, so have some fluff of Bucky baking and Steve keeps on interrupting him with kisses

When Bucky was in recovery from everything Hydra did to him, he took up baking to help him cope. He continued to bake after he recovered, and his baking has become quite popular among the rest of the Avengers. 

It’s December now, and the smell of Christmas cookies has become a permanent fixture in Steve and Bucky’s apartment.

Bucky pulls a tray of cookies out of the oven and sets it aside, putting the next tray in. 

Steve wanders into the kitchen to find it covered in cookies. Some are still cooling, some are half decorated, and some are completely decorated, sitting in neat piles. Bucky is in the middle of it all, flour and icing decorating his apron. 

“You have enough cookies here?” Steve asks, walking over to Bucky.

“Nope. The rest of the team has started offering money if I make cookie gift boxes for them. Sam wants two, one for him and one for his mom. Clint and Nat both asked for one each, they’re planning on giving it to each other. Bruce asked for one to give to the Hulk and Hulk asked for one to give to Bruce, I know it’s weird. Thor wants eighteen to take to Asgard with him, and Tony wants me to make gifts for all of his employees.” Bucky looks to Steve. “I need a lot of cookies.”

“Is there any way I can help?” Steve asks. 

“No. You remember what happened last time you helped.”

Steve does remember. How could he forget when there was cookie dough everywhere afterward and all the cookies came out of the oven burnt. He figured the answer was going to be no, but he still wanted to be nice anyway.

“Well, let me know if you need anything,” Steve says, and then pulls Bucky into a kiss.

Bucky’s hand clamps around Steve’s wrist hard, and Steve pulls away, meeting Bucky’s glare with an innocent smile.

“I told you to stop trying to steal food, Steve.”

Steve moves his hand from the counter behind Bucky and pouts, “But, cookies.”

“I told you you can eat the reject pile.”

“But the reject pile is empty!”

Bucky turns back around and looks over the recently cooled cookies as Steve continues to talk. 

“I have to sit around here all day and smell all these cookies you’re making and not be able to eat any of them, and when you’ve got an appetite like me it just makes you hungry all the time, and…” The rest of his sentence is garbled after Bucky stuffs a cookie into his mouth. 

“You could always leave the apartment if you don’t like it. Now, get out of my kitchen.”

Steve does as he is told and eats his cookie, but doesn’t leave the apartment. 

Later, Steve comes back in again, finding Bucky in the middle of decorating a new batch of cookies. He smiles and walks over to Bucky. 

“Hello,” he says, pulling Bucky away from his decorating for a kiss.

“Hi,” Bucky says, pulling away and going back to cookie decorating.

Steve doesn’t leave him alone though, leaning into him and kissing his cheek over and over again. 

Finally, Bucky mumbles, “Quit it, I’m trying to work.” Steve just kisses him again so Bucky growls, “If you don’t stop I will kill you.”

Steve smirks. “Uh huh, okay.” He kisses Bucky again.

“I will kill you with this piping bag,” says Bucky.

“But wouldn’t that ruin the piping bag?”

“They don’t cost that much. Would be easy to replace.”

Steve pretends to be upset. "So you would kill me just like that?”

Bucky glares at him and hits him for good measure. “Just get out of here, punk, before I tie you to a chair.”

Steve obliges and takes the reject pile on his way out of the kitchen. 

Later, Steve is watching T.V. when Bucky finally comes out of the kitchen. Steve pauses the T.V. and looks up at Bucky. 

“Are you finally done?”

Bucky nods. “Everything is packed and ready to go. I told everyone to come by tomorrow and pick them up.” He shows Steve the box that’s in his hand. “They’re kind of cute, aren’t they?”

Steve nods. “They look great, Buck. I’m sure they’re worth every penny they’re paying you for.”

Bucky holds the box out to Steve. “Here. For you.”

Steve’s eyes light up as he takes the box. “You made some for me?”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Of course I did. I couldn’t forget about my best guy, could I?”

Steve smiles and starts to open the box as Bucky goes back into the kitchen. He comes back out with a plate of cookies. 

“What are those?” Steve asks. 

“I wasn’t about to make all those cookies without making some for myself.” Bucky sits down and takes a bite from one of the cookies. “What are we watching?”

“Well, I had been watching a T.V. show, but I could ask for some holiday movie recommendations if you want?”

Bucky nods and eats more cookies as Steve sends a couple of texts. 

“Tony says to watch Die Hard and ignore what everyone else says…” his voice trails off as he looks up at a crumb covered Bucky.

“What?” Bucky asks, and Steve laughs.

“You’ve got crumbs all over your face.”

Bucky brings his hand to his face and starts to wipe them off, but Steve stops him. 

“Here, let me help.” Steve leans in and kisses Bucky, and Bucky returns it.

When they break apart, Bucky mutters, “You’ll do anything for even a little bit more of a cookie.”

Steve hums and puts the movie in. “You know me, I just can’t resist tasting something so sweet.”


	15. Adoption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Request by Liar Princess: Fluff with a bit of Angst Steve and Bucky bring home their new soon Little baby Peter Parker but Bucky hasn't held him once, because he's scared to hold something so precious and innocent in his hands, so steve and Peter prove him wrong
> 
> Oh my God I love writing baby Peter!! Thank you so much for this request! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't know anything about adoption processes, and didn't do any research for this, so it's just my interpretation and is most likely not what actually happened.

Steve and Bucky sit in the adoption office, waiting patiently for someone to come and get them. Bucky is nervous, so he’s bouncing his leg up and down. 

Steve notices and places his hand on Bucky’s leg, trying to calm him down. Bucky looks up to him and Steve offers him a small smile.

“Everything’s going to be fine, Buck. You don’t need to worry.”

Bucky still worries though. He hasn’t voiced his worries out loud to Steve, which probably makes them worse. Of course he wants children. He would have said no to adoption if he didn’t. He had some younger sisters when he was growing up, so the concept of taking care of someone else isn’t the problem either. It’s his arm. It could technically be classified as a weapon of mass destruction, so he is terrified of the possibility that he might hurt the child. 

“Mr. Rogers? Mr. Barnes?”

They look up at the woman who has come to greet them, and stand. Steve extends his hand to her in greetings.

“Yes, that’s us.” He shakes her hand. Bucky offers her a smile, and she nods her head at him.

“The two of you have been approved, on the condition that you make sure you have a babysitter when you are out at work, and do not bring your child along with you.”

“Of course, Ma’am. We wouldn’t want to hurt our child.”

She nods and motions for them to follow her. “We have a special case that just recently came in. We think the two of you are perfect for him. You see, his parents were recently killed in a plane crash. We had to bring him in, and we found out that he’s a bit – peculiar.”

She leads them into a room with a couple of chairs and some toys. “We’re going to bring him in here and see if he likes you, and if he does, then you can take him home with you today.” She then leaves, so Bucky and Steve sit down in the chairs. 

“A bit peculiar, huh?” Bucky says, trying to get rid of some of his nervousness. “I guess I’m used to that by now, having to deal with you for so long.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “Yeah, okay. Hate on the big guy.”

“No, hate on the little–turned–big guy who always gets into fights no matter where he is.”

Steve smiles. “You got me there.”

The woman comes back into the room, holding a small toddler against her side. She talks to him, saying, “Peter, look up, here are some nice gentlemen who want to adopt you.”

Peter slowly moves his head from off of the woman, and looks over to Steve and Bucky. They are both smiling big, and Peter seems to relax a little.

“Is it okay if I put you down now?” the woman asks Peter, and he nods. She puts him down and he goes over to some of the toys. She turns to face Steve and Bucky. “I’ll be back later to see how he’s doing. If there is a problem, just press the emergency button over there.” She points across the room at a small metal box.

Steve stands. “Thank you, ma’am.” He walks over to Peter and crouches next to him. “Hey, Peter,” he says in a soft voice, “I’m Steve.” 

Peter doesn’t say anything, and instead pulls a toy out of one of the boxes.

“Do you like that toy?” Steve asks, and Peter nods. He pulls another toy out of the box. He then gives one of them to Steve, and teeters over to Bucky to give him the other one.

“Thank you, Peter,” Bucky says with a smile. 

“You welk,” he replies, and then teeters back over to Steve.

“What is this?” Steve asks, turning the small animal toy over in his hands.

“Spider,” Peter says, and then starts trying to get into Steve’s lap.

Steve moves from his crouching position and sits down, pulling Peter into his lap. “You like spiders?” Steve asks, trying to get Peter to open up to him.

“Yeah!” Peter says loudly, and then stands in Steve’s lap, trying to climb him.

“Aww, Buddy, you can’t –” Steve stops his sentence when Peter successfully figures out how to climb up Steve, and then sits down on his head.

Bucky laughs at the pair, finally coming over from the chairs to join them. “Looks like someone likes that big head of yours.”

“Wow, is it insult your elder day or something?” Steve asks jokingly.

Bucky sits down next to him. “If it was, you would be insulting me, not the other way around.”

Peter waves at Bucky from on top of Steve’s head, and Bucky waves back.

They play with Peter for a while longer before the woman comes back into the room. She finds Peter laughing as Steve is gently throwing him up into the air and then catching him again.

She smiles at them when they notice her, so Steve stops throwing Peter and holds him. 

“Are you having fun, Peter?” she asks him.

“Yeah!” he exclaims, and climbs his way back on top of Steve’s head.

She can’t help but giggle a little. “Do you want to go home with these men?”

“Yeah!” He says, leaning back on Steve’s head.

Bucky’s eyes grow wide and he gets ready to catch Peter from falling, but he doesn’t fall. Instead, his feet are holding onto Steve’s shirt somehow.

When the woman sees how Bucky reacted, she says, “He hasn’t done that yet? He’s our little spider. Somehow, he can climb on everything.”

Bucky raises his eyebrows. “No, he hadn’t, he only climbed onto Steve’s head last time.”

The woman nods. “Well, it seems he likes you and you like him, so you can take him home.”

Bucky and Steve collect what little of Peter’s things were there in the building as Peter continues to sit on Steve’s head.

When they get out to the street, Steve pulls him off of his head and holds him against his side.

“You want to hold him?” Steve asks, noticing Bucky hasn’t touched Peter the whole time.

Bucky shakes his head. “No, I’m, uh, good for right now. Someone has to hold this stuff, right? So why not the man with the metal arm.”

Steve notices then that something is wrong, but he doesn’t mention it, instead focusing on Peter and bringing him back home.  
~~~  
One week later, and Peter is thriving. He loves everything about Steve and Bucky and their apartment.

Steve has noticed that Bucky still hasn’t held or touched Peter in any way. 

Steve decides he needs to do something about it. 

“Hey, Buck,” Steve calls from the kitchen where he is making dinner, “Can you get Peter and bring him here for dinner?’

Bucky panics. “Sure,” he answers, like a fool. He didn’t want to make excuses as to why he doesn’t want to pick up Peter, so he resigns to going to find him. 

“Peter?” Bucky asks, searching for the toddler.

“Ahh!” he yells, running around a corner and smashing into Bucky. He starts to giggle.

“Hey, there, Bud. What are you doing?”

“I wuv yoo,” Peter coos, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s leg. 

Bucky freezes, the words sinking in. “I – I love you too, Peter. Let’s go get some food, huh?”

“Food!” he says, holding onto Bucky’s leg tight.

Bucky laughs, and carefully walks back into the kitchen with Peter on his leg.

Steve turns around when he hears Bucky come in, and upon seeing just Bucky, says, “Where’s Peter?”

Bucky looks down, sticking his leg up a bit, and Peter starts to giggle. Steve smiles. It’s not quite what he was hoping for, but it still works.

“Hey, Peter. You want some spaghetti?”

“Food!” Peter exclaims again, and lets go of Bucky’s leg, dropping to the floor. He then climbs up Steve and perches on his usual spot on Steve’s head.

Steve laughs. “Yeah, you want some food.”

Peter wraps his hands around Steve’s neck in a hug. “Wuv yoo, daddy.”

Steve’s heart melts, and he puts his hand around Peter in a sort of hug. “Love you too, bud. Let’s go sit down, okay?”

Bucky picks up the bowl of spaghetti to bring to the table as Steve takes Peter over to the table to set him in his chair.  
~~~  
Bucky is starting to finally open up to Peter, but Steve still notices he’s being careful, and hardly uses his hands with Peter.

Bucky is sitting on the couch watching T.V. while Steve is supposed to be taking Peter to bed.

Steve takes Peter into his room and closes the door behind him. “Hey, Peter, do you think you could do something for me?”

Peter looks up to Steve, waiting for instructions.

Bucky is too engrossed in the T.V. show to notice anything is wrong. The only thing that could have distracted him is if Steve yelled for him. 

Suddenly he hears a loud voice near him. “Daddy!”

He looks up to where he thinks he heard the noise to see Peter on the ceiling above him.

“Peter, what are you doing?” Bucky asks, and he feels like time slows down as he watches Peter let go of the ceiling and starts to fall. He sticks his hand out, and catches Peter in his arms. 

Peter starts to giggle, and Bucky looks at him with a stern look. “You could have fallen and hurt yourself, Peter,” Bucky starts, but Steve interrupts, leaning against the door frame.

“I told him to do it.”

Bucky looks over at Steve. “Why the f– udge would you do that?” he asks, raising his voice slightly.

Steve walks over to them. “Because you made me.”

“I made you? I didn’t make you, you–” 

Steve cuts Bucky’s sentence off with a kiss. “It’s because you’re an idiot who thinks you’re going to hurt Peter.”

Bucky looks surprised. “Was it that obvious?”

Steve nods. “This is the first time you’re holding Peter in your hands, after all.”

Bucky looks down, forgetting he was still holding Peter. Peter smiles up at him, and then wraps his arms around Bucky’s metal one. Bucky holds his arm out, and Peter hangs onto it like a sloth, laughing as Bucky shakes his arm a little.

Bucky smiles, making Steve smile as well. Peter shifts and hangs off of Bucky’s arm like a bat, laughing again as Bucky swings him up and down.

“See?” says Steve as Peter’s laughter starts to die down and Bucky stops shaking his arm. “You’re not going to hurt him.”

Peter climbs up Bucky’s arm and sits on his head. 

Bucky looks up at him the best that he can. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Peter yawns and starts to sag. Bucky smiles. 

“Let’s get you to bed, bud.” Bucky pulls him off of his head and carries him into his arms to his bed, tucking the blankets in around him as he falls asleep.


	16. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Request by L.ignadmaoryt: Steve and bucky want hyde them relation ship from the world because there a super heros and they want peace. so they by a home just for them. Fluff (Sorry for my english realy bad)
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! Sorry it took so long, I've been very uninspired lately.

Bucky and Steve sit in the common room of the Avenger’s compound together, a laptop on Bucky’s lap.

“What about this one?” he asks Steve, pointing to something on the computer.

Steve shakes his head. “No, it doesn’t have the right feeling.”

Tony walks in. “Any luck guys?”

They shake their heads. 

“You know, I can always set you two up rooms here,” says Tony.

“No thanks,” Steve says for about the hundredth time that week. “We’d rather have some place to ourselves, so someone isn’t constantly being pestered about his arm.” Steve fixes Tony with a stern look.

Tony shrugs. “Okay, whatever. I can set you up with a realtor if you want, then you don’t have to sit there on the computer all day, turning down all the houses you look at.”

“Sure,” says Bucky, “since Steve can’t make up his damn mind.”

The next day, Steve and Bucky are driving to meet up with their realtor, who claims to have already found a few houses that meet what Steve and Bucky are looking for.

They pull up in front of the first house, which isn’t very far from the compound, but it’s far enough for them. 

“Hello!” the young woman says when Steve and Bucky make it to the front porch. “How are you fine gentleman today?”

“We’re doing good, Ma’am,” answers Steve, extending his hand for a handshake. “How are you?”

“Fantastic. I found a few houses that I think meet what you two are looking for, and was able to set tours up for all of them today. Shall we start?”

She leads Steve and Bucky through the house, going from room to room and pointing out the important features. Steve has to duck under almost every doorway though in the house, so they decide it is too small.

The next house isn’t very impressive either. All the windows are small, and there’s a busy road near the house, not giving them much privacy. 

The next handful of houses don’t impress Bucky and Steve either. Bucky is ready to go back to the compound and call it quits for a while, but there’s one more house the realtor has set up for today, so Steve manages to convince him to stay for the last house.

“This house is on the expensive side,” she tells them outside the door, “But I think you’ll like it.”

It’s pretty reclusive, with a long driveway coming off of the main road, so they think it’s going good so far. Steve is right behind the realtor as she leads them into the house, and he has to stop when they reach the living room. 

There are no lights on but the room is still well lit, the filtered sun streaming through the forest outside in through the two story window that takes up an entire wall. The ceiling is dark paneled wood, contrasting well against the soft blue walls

Bucky comes up next to him and says, “This is it, isn’t it.”

Steve nods, words not being able to form for him.

The woman smiles. “Do you want to see the rest of the house before you buy it?”  
~~~  
Bucky tosses Steve the keys as they step out of the car so Bucky can go unlock the truck. “Leave the door open,” he says, “so I can start bringing some boxes in.”

Steve does as he was asked and unlocks the front door. They were able to buy the house thanks to Tony, who went to the sellers and offered them whatever the highest offer was plus another five percent of the price. Needless to say, they got a lot of money. 

Steve stands in the now empty living room and looks around, trying to figure out where the best spots to place all the furniture is. Bucky comes in and drops a stack of boxes on the floor, and then sneaks over to Steve, who’s back is turned to him as he’s lost in thought.

Bucky wraps his arms around Steve and nestles his chin in his shoulder, placing a kiss on his cheek. “You’re too tall,” he mumbles, having to stand on his toes to set his chin there. 

“Maybe you’re just too short,” Steve mumbles back, turning his head to give Bucky and actual kiss. When they pull apart, he says, “Man, it’s been too long since we’ve done that.”

Bucky spins Steve around and kisses him again, hard, until both of them are breathless. “Well, if we weren’t trying to hide it from everyone, we could have been necking in the compound instead.”

Steve hums and pulls Bucky close, into a hug. “I’m not so worried about the team as I am everyone else. Screw the Captain America mantle, I mean villain wise. They know we’re together, they start going after us to get to the other. I don’t want to put you in harms way.”

Bucky grunts. “I’ll just kill them if I have to.”

Steve laughs. “I’m sure you would. But for now, I think we can just settle on this house to ourselves, and worry about the public much, much later in the future.

Bucky nods against Steve’s chest, and Steve sighs, pulling away so they can start to unpack.

Most of their missions end up being separate from each other, so that they don’t accidentally out themselves while on the middle of a mission. But they know what’ll be waiting at home for them. Bucky will walk in to Steve sketching on the couch, a blanket over him and some sort of hot drink sitting on the table, so that Bucky can curl up next to him and fall asleep. Steve will come back to the smell of freshly baked cookies, often finding Bucky still covered in flour. He’ll laugh at how Bucky looks, and then kiss him, pulling him and the plate of fresh cookies into the living room to cuddle and watch a movie.

They’ll have to come out eventually, they can’t hide their relationship from the public for forever. But, for now, they are content.


	17. Wardrobe Remodel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Michelle: Bucky gets Peter’s help to throw out all of Steve’s old grandpa clothes and gets him more appropriate clothes
> 
> I hope you like it!  
> CW: There's a bit of implied smut at the end of the chapter

“Hey, kid.”

Peter turns to look at Bucky from across the room.

“Yes, Mr. Winter Soldier?”

Bucky sighs. “Peter, we talked about this. It’s Bucky.”

“Oh, sorry, Mr. Bucky.”

Bucky sighs again but decides it’s a step in the right direction. “I need your help.”

Peter looks at him in shock. “You – need help – from me?”

Bucky nods. “You have time now?”

“Of course!”  
~~~  
Steve comes back into the apartment after his run and hears noise coming from one of the bedrooms.

“What is this!” Steve hears Peter exclaim from one of the rooms, and decides to investigate.

“What is going on in here?” Steve asks as he walks into his bedroom, the floor littered in clothes from his closet and dresser. 

“Hi Mr. Rogers!” Peter waves from inside the closet, throwing clothes out to Bucky.

“Hey, punk. We’re remodeling.”

“I thought remodeling has to do with paint and plaster and things. And Peter, you can call me Steve.”

“Wardrobe remodel,” Peter says, “Mr. Bucky says he hates your style and wanted my help.”

Steve glares at Bucky. “Oh really?”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Pete.”

Peter perks up. “Oops! Sorry!” He tosses another shirt out of the closet and Bucky catches it.

“Come on, what is wrong with that shirt!” Steve exclaims, gesturing to the plaid button up in Bucky’s hand. 

Bucky levels a glare at him. “Steve. You look like an old grandpa in these clothes. If you want to keep acting like you’re a hundred, fine. But I’m still getting you new clothes.”

Steve sighs and watches as Bucky tosses the shirt onto one of the piles. He’s never been able to say no to Bucky, and apparently, that’s not going to stop now.

“What’s the difference in the piles?” Steve asks, pulling some things out of the smaller pile on the floor.

“That’s the keep pile. As you can see, there are very few items that we kept.”

“Most of it is workout clothes and underwear,” says Peter, tossing more plaid shirts out. “Your leather jackets are in there too, Mr. Bucky said they make you look hot.”

“Peter!” Bucky hisses, and Peter grows red.

“Oh! Sorry! I did it again, didn’t I.” He rubs the back of his neck with an apologetic smile on his face.

Steve quirks an eyebrow at that, pulling his brown leather jacket out of the pile and slipping it on.

“Okay, that’s everything!” Peter says, stepping out of the closet and over a pile of clothes. “Anything else I can help you with Mr. Bucky?”

Bucky nods, picking the keep pile off of the floor. “Want to come shopping with us? We could use the extra pair of eyes to see what’ll look good.” He sets the keep pile down on the bed.

Peter’s eyes grow wide. “Of course! Who am I to turn down a chance to see Mr. Steve modeling?”

Bucky smiles. “You’ve got good taste, kid. Jarvis, will you tell someone to come in and get rid of all the clothes on the floor?”

“Of course.”  
~~~  
Bucky takes Peter and Steve out to the mall, and Steve is hiding under a baseball cap. Bucky has one on too, but no one recognizes him nearly as much as Steve. Peter bounces around in-between the two of them, pointing out various stores he’s been in and telling stories about them.

“You see that bookstore?” Peter points across the hallway. “Me and Ned were in there once looking for more comic books, and we found ourselves in the middle of a lego car competition. We accidentally won and were able to take home a free set of legos each, one that we got to pick ourselves. We both took Star Wars sets. He took a TIE fighter, I opted for the Millennium Falcon.”

Bucky smiles as they reach the clothing store he was looking for. “Here we go. We should be able to find some non-grandpa items here.”

Bucky and Peter start to scour the racks in the men's section, looking for anything that isn’t plaid or khakis that would also fit Steve. Steve browses the racks as well, but almost everything he pulls out gets put back on the shelves, save for a dark blue jacket he found.

“Okay, Steve, it’s time.” Bucky and Peter each have their arms full of clothes. Bucky shoves his into Steve’s arms and says, “Go, start trying things on.”

Peter drops his clothes in the dressing room and then leaves so Steve can enter the room. Bucky and Peter find chairs out in front of the dressing room and sit down, waiting.

“What the hell?” they hear Steve grumble from the dressing room.

“Everything okay in there, Stevie?” Bucky teases.

“I think these pants are the wrong size, they’re too tight.”

“Well, come on out, let us see.”

Steve opens the door and Bucky looks him up and down. He’s wearing a simple green t-shirt and skinny black jeans. 

Bucky whistles. “Damn, Rogers, you look –” he stops in his tracks as Steve does a spin, and he sees what Steve’s ass looks like in the pants.

“I look what?” Steve asks, voice concerned. “Is it the pants? I think they’re too tight.”

“Amazing,” Bucky blurts out, and Steve quirks an eyebrow. “Also those are the biggest size they make, so unfortunately no, there’s nothing bigger.”

Steve narrows his eyes. “I don’t think I believe you. Peter, would you lie to me?”

Peter gulps and looks between Steve and Bucky, both men looking at him intensely. Then he says in a rush, “They’re skinny jeans so they are going to be tight but they don’t need to be that tight there are a few bigger sizes.”

“Unbelievable,” Bucky says, looking up at the ceiling. “I thought I trusted you, Peter.”

Steve goes back into the dressing room to put something else on.

“I’m sorry Mr. Bucky, but I couldn’t lie to Mr. Steve.” He lowers his voice to a whisper and says, “Besides, if Mr. Steve bought that, I think I would have had trouble keeping my eyes to myself.”

Bucky starts to laugh at that, patting Peter on the shoulder. “Me too, kid. Me too.”  
~~~  
The three of them return to the tower later with a few bags of clothes. There are a lot of different colors of jeans, the only kind of pants Bucky would let Steve buy. The shirts were split half and half, some of them plain t-shirts, the others were decent, monochrome button ups.

“I should go see Mr. Stark now,” Peter says when the elevator reaches Steve and Bucky’s floor, “But thanks for inviting me! I had a lot of fun.” He hands the bags he was carrying over to Steve and then the doors close.

Steve and Bucky take the bags into Steve’s bedroom, where they find the other clothes have been taken care of already. Steve pulls the pile off of the bed and puts them back where they were originally.

“You know, this is a lot of clothes to put away. Do you mind helping me out a little?” Steve asks Bucky, raising an eyebrow.

Bucky frowns and says, “Later. I’ve seen you with enough clothes on today, I think it’s time for you to take them off.” He pushes Steve down onto the bed, the new clothes soon forgotten.


	18. Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Michelle: Steve and Bucky babysit Clint’s kids
> 
> I had fun writing this! I hope you enjoy!

“Thanks again, guys,” Clint says to Steve and Bucky. “Laura and I have been needing some time away.”

“Of course,” Steve says, Nathaniel already wrapped up in his arms. “We’re happy to help.”

“Honey, are you ready yet?” Laura calls from the front door.

“I’m coming!” Clint winks at Steve. “We’ll be back later. We won’t stay out too long. Make sure they’re in bed by nine, it is a weekend.”

Steve nods. “See you then.”

Clint leaves and Steve turns back around to go to the living room, following the shrieking of a little kid having fun. He enters the room and sees Lila clinging to Bucky’s metal arm as he tries to pull her off.

Bucky looks up at Steve and says, “Why did we agree to this again?”

Steve chuckles and says, “Because this is our friend, who needed help. It’s just a couple of kids for a few hours, it won’t be that bad.”

“Mhmm,” Bucky says, finally managing to pull Lila off of his arm. “While you hold the baby, what am I supposed to do? Chase the kids around?”

Steve shrugs and looks around. “Where’s Cooper?”

Bucky glares at Steve as he holds Lila against his side, turning around to show Steve that Cooper is clinging to his back, like a monkey.

Steve snorts and then composes himself as Bucky glares at him again. “How about a movie?” he suggests.

Lila jumps out of Bucky’s arms and starts jumping around Steve, chanting, “Movie, movie, movie!”

Steve shifts Nathaniel into one arm so he can stop Lila from jumping, while Bucky takes advantage of his free hands to try and get Bucky off of his back.

“Okay, we’ll watch a movie,” Steve tells Lila, which gets her to stop jumping around. “Go and pick one out.”

Cooper jumps off of Bucky’s back to run and join his sister in picking a movie. 

While they are off at the stack of movies, Steve turns his attention to Nathaniel, looking down at the baby. He tickles Nathaniel’s stomach, eliciting a series of giggles out of the baby. 

The kids come racing back over to Bucky and shove a movie into his hands. 

Bucky takes it and reads the title out loud. “Big Hero 6?”

Steve shrugs. “I haven’t heard of it.”

Bucky flips the case over and says, “It’s animated.” He looks down at the kids. “You sure you want to watch this? You’re not going to stop watching in the middle!”

“Yes!” they both scream simultaneously, but to which question, Bucky is unsure. He puts the movie in anyways, and Steve settles down on the couch. 

“I want to sit next to Uncle Steve!” Lila says, jumping onto the couch and next to Steve.

Cooper wrinkles his nose. “But he’s holding Nathaniel.”

Bucky laughs on his way back to the couch. “Don’t worry, Cooper, you can sit next to me.” Bucky sits down and sandwiches Lila between him and Steve, and Cooper sits down on the other side of Bucky.

Together, they watch the movie, Lila squealing and giggling every now and then, and giggling even more when Bucky moves his arm to try and shush her. Nathaniel falls asleep in Steve’s arms first, so Steve gets up in the middle of the movie to put him in his crib, making sure the baby monitor works.

When he comes back, he sees that Cooper is starting to dose against Bucky, who wrapped his arm around him. Lila hops on Steve’s lap when he sits back down, and they watch the rest of the movie together. When it’s finished, Cooper is fast asleep against Bucky, while Lila is starting to dose. 

“We should get these monkeys off to bed,” Steve says, pulling Lila into his arms.

“I’m not tired,” Lila says around a yawn. “I wanna stay up all night!”

Bucky carefully picks Cooper up and takes him to his bedroom.

“Uncle Steve, I don’t want to go to bed,” Lila says, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head no his shoulder as he takes her to her room.

“I’m sure you don’t. But, you know what happens when you don’t go to sleep, right?”

Lila shakes her head, and Steve smiles.

“When you don’t sleep at night, the monsters find out that you didn’t sleep, and then they start to come to your house at night and keep waking you up, so you never get sleep again.”

Lila looks scared. “I don’t want that! Okay, I’ll go to sleep.” She gets changed into pajamas herself, and then crawls into bed. She pulls the covers over her head and peeks her eyes out.

“Goodnight, Lila,” Steve says, walking towards the door, where Bucky is already waiting.

“Wait!” she says before Steve turns the light out. Steve turns around to see her sitting up in the bed, the blankets still covering her.

“Yes?” Steve asks.

Lila sees Bucky in the door and says, “Uncle Bucky, can you check for monsters?”

Bucky smiles and enters the room, pushing past Steve to kneel next to her bed. “Where do you want me to look?”

“Under the bed and in the closet,” she says matter-of-factly. “But be careful of the one in the closet, it likes to fight Daddy sometimes.”

Steve chuckles as he walks out of the room.

Bucky gives a small laugh too. “I can’t blame him, your dad probably told too many bad jokes and made him angry.” Lila giggles.

Bucky leans down to look under the bed, speaking as he looks. “Let’s see, there’s some shoes, a bouncy ball, legos, a stuffed animal…” He looks back up at Lila. “I don’t see any monsters here!” He stands and walks over to the closet and puts his hand on the handle, leaning into the door as if he’s listening.

“Be careful!” Lila says just before Bucky opens the door.

“Ah ha!” Bucky says, swinging the closet door open, revealing nothing but clothes and toys. Bucky closes the door and turns back to Lila. “I think I scared him off. He won’t dare come back while I’m still in the house.” He walks over to her as she lays back down in the bed, and tucks her in. “Now, get some sleep.”

She sits up slightly again before Bucky leaves, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Night, Uncle Bucky.”

Bucky smiles. “Goodnight, Lila.” He turns the light out and closes the door behind him, running into Steve as he turns around. 

Steve smiles. “I think you owe me an apology.”

Bucky raises his eyebrow and starts to walk back to the living room. “For what?”

“If I remember correctly, you were complaining at the beginning of the night about being here. Seems like you had fun there.”

Bucky shrugs noncommittally and sits back down on the couch, changing the subject. “So, what do we do now?”

Steve sits down beside him. “We can sit here and talk. Or we can turn the T.V. on again.”

Bucky tosses the remote to Steve, and he turns it on, looking through the channels for something good.

“I was thinking,” Steve starts, and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“Isn’t that a little dangerous?”

Steve punches Bucky playfully, and continues. “That movie really inspired me.” He looks over to Bucky, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “When we get back, we should ask Stark to make you a robot like that.”

Bucky looks confused. “You mean Baymax?”

Steve nods. “Maybe then, you’d stop walking around like a sourpuss most of the time, and actually show some kind of feelings for once.”

Bucky shoves Steve over onto his side, and Steve laughs, staying down just in case Bucky wants to shove him again. They hear the front door open, and soon, Clint and Laura are back in the living room.

“Hey guys,” Clint says, “I hope the kids weren’t too much trouble.”

Steve stands. “We watched a movie, and it managed to put most of them to sleep.”

“Let me guess,” Laura says, “Lila wasn’t asleep yet.”

Bucky laughs. “No, she wasn’t. I had to scare away the monster in her closet before she would go to sleep.”

“She asked you to do it?” Clint says, surprised. “I thought it was going to be Steve.”

“I think I scared her too much by saying if she didn’t go to sleep monsters would show up to make sure she never sleeps again.”

Clint laughs. “Well, we’ll let you get out of here now. Thanks for helping out.”

Bucky smiles. “Any time. Feel free to call again if you need us.”


	19. I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by mysteriousStarlight: Soulmate AU where you and soulmate share skin. So scars would transfer, marks would transfer, writing/tattoos would transfer.
> 
> I absolutely love Soulmate AUs, thanks for the request! I hope you enjoy!

Steve was three when he picked up a marker and drew on his arm instead of the paper in front of him. He decided to draw a flower, adding a stem and leaves on it. When he was finished, he looked at it to admire his handiwork, and sees, an inch away from the bottom of the stem, something else forming. At first, it’s just a line. He thinks he might have accidentally marked himself there. But as he watched, the line grew, until it formed a heart.

Steve was confused, but moved further down his arm, this time drawing a dog. When the dog was finished, further down the arm, more lines start to appear, until a smiley face has appeared. 

Later, after showing his arm to his mom, is when he finds out about soulmates. A soulmate bond marks your skin the same as theirs. Any writing, tattoos, bruises, and scars will be shared between the two bodies. 

Steve decides he likes his soulmate as he’s growing up, even if he has been getting in trouble for the writing on his hands that looks like he’s cheating on a test in school. He wonders if his soulmate likes him too, or if they are annoyed with how much they always seem to be bruised. Steve can’t help the bruises, he gets into too many fights and bruises easily. 

One day, when he’s fighting, someone else jumps in with him, helping against the current bullies. The bullies end up running, which is something Steve hasn’t seen often.

When they are gone, the man extends a hand to Steve, helping him off of the ground. “Bucky,” he says, pulling Steve up.

“Steve,” he answers, noticing that both of their knuckles are bruised. He dismisses it, thinking they both had just been fighting. 

Bucky and him grow to be fast friends. Steve always knows he can trust in Bucky to help him in a fight. Steve wears long sleeves around everywhere, believing the drawings between him and his soulmate are for him only. He’s afraid people, mainly Bucky, will judge them still drawing little doodles to each other.

Bucky starts to date around in high school, and Steve wonders if he doesn’t have a soulmate. Bucky tries to set him up with some girls as well, but he only wants his soulmate.

As high school comes and goes, Steve starts to grow more and more weary about his soulmate. They still haven’t met yet, somehow, so what if they don’t like him? He distracts himself by trying to sign up for the army, no matter how much Bucky protests.

Then Bucky is gone, overseas to fight the war, and Steve finds himself even more alone than ever before. His soulmate still draws to him, but they seem to be spread out, as if his soulmate doesn’t have time to draw anymore. 

Steve finds his way into the army with the experiment that makes him big, and now he doesn’t get hurt as easy. They put him out on the spangled circuit, and he wonders if maybe this is how he’s going to meet his soulmate. Whoever they were just didn’t live in the same state as him. 

One morning, Steve wakes up to find faint bruises forming on his face. When the stage manager sees this, they produce a bottle of makeup to cover up the bruises. As the days go on, the bruises grow darker and darker, and more and more makeup being used to cover them. Steve wonders if his soulmate is actually a soldier instead, and manages to convince the stage manager to do a couple shows for the soldiers.

That’s when he finds out Bucky’s unit has been captured, and he has to go save Bucky. He knows Bucky would have done the same for him. As he releases the other prisoners and causes a riot in the factory, Steve finally finds Bucky.

He stops short when he finds Bucky, for three reasons. One being that his best friend is strapped to a lab table. The second being that as he looks into his best friends bruised face, he notices the same pattern of bruises he’s been looking at on his own face in the mirror every day. And as if that wasn’t enough, on Bucky’s arm where the sleeve has been rolled up, Steve sees the same eagle he had drawn onto his own skin recently.

Steve doesn’t let this realization hold him down for too long, focusing on getting Bucky out before the factory goes up in flames. He doesn’t bring it up later either, deciding to let Bucky heal from whatever they had done to him before he tries to bring it up.

Steve never gets the chance to bring it up though, because they are never alone after that day in the factory, and before he knows it, Bucky has fallen off of the train into the chasm. There was no way he could have survived it.

Steve tries whatever he can to forget. He refuses to draw on himself anymore, knowing no one is going to see it. He does notice a thin line appear on the middle of his left arm a few days before he crashes the plane into the arctic, but doesn’t think anything of it.

When Steve wakes up in a new century, all he can do is hide himself away from everyone. He just wants to be alone for right now. His thoughts stray to Bucky then, and he finds himself asking if there’s a gym he can use, so he can attack a punching bag instead of breaking everything around him.

His soulmate died around seventy years ago, and here Steve was, still alive in the next century, entirely alone. And he will be for the rest of his life. After he breaks the first punching bag, he decides he’s had enough and gets in the shower. That’s when he finds the new scar.

There’s a big, pink scar cutting through the skin all the way around his left shoulder. It zigzags unnaturally, leading Steve to believe his soulmate – Bucky, had his arm amputated. But why would anyone amputate a dead body?

Steve grows hopeful and starts to try and convince anyone he can that there’s a chance Bucky might still be alive. Everyone dismisses it though, telling him that it happened so long ago, he probably is just missing his past at the moment. He doesn’t let the doubters destroy his hope though. 

Maybe they would understand if they knew Bucky was his soulmate, but Steve never even told Bucky; he doesn’t want to tell someone else before his own soulmate.

When Steve meets Tony, he manages to convince him to help, using his money to help Steve send out a search team in the mountain range he had last seen Bucky in. After months of searching, they came up with nothing. Tony gives Steve his apologies. Steve doesn’t care – if there was no body, there’s a chance Bucky made it out of there somehow. 

Steve spends most of his time when not out on a mission trying to figure out what could have happened to Bucky. Two years is a long time for him to try and figure it out, but when he does, it is not at all what he was expecting.

“Bucky?” he says, looking at his soulmate, still alive and young, the man he had just been fighting. If he hadn’t been so focused on the fight, maybe he would have realized before now that his left arm was the metal one – maybe even as far back as the roof.

“Who the hell is Bucky?” he answers, pointing a gun at Steve.

Steve freezes, only half paying attention when Bucky vanishes and then the Hydra agents start to arrest the group. He doesn’t outright tell Sam and Natasha that the man who had just tried to kill them was his soulmate, but he’s sure they have connected the dots by now. He hadn’t exactly been hiding his scar earlier.

After they escape and realize they need to attack the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, Steve knows Bucky’s going to be there again. He’s determined to make Bucky remember him. As the helicarriers start to destroy themselves, Steve knows they completed the mission, so he goes back to Bucky. He lets the man attack him, not willing to hurt Bucky any more than he already has. He watches as Bucky punches his face, again and again, and the bruises he’s making are starting to appear on Bucky’s face. Then he’s falling down into the river, and he closes his eyes, but not before seeing a metal hand reaching for him.

When he opens his eyes again, he’s in a hospital, being treated for his wounds. Sam thinks he’s crazy for wanting to go out after Bucky, but resigns to Steve’s stubbornness and asks him to at least finish healing first. 

Once Sam leaves the room, Steve takes a sharpie off of the table next to him, holding it in his left hand. With a shaky hand, he touches the marker to his right arm, and from there it forms into a heart. It’s not the best, being that it’s not his dominant hand, but he finds it fitting, being the first thing Bucky ever drew him was a heart. He ventures to take it a step further, and writes “I love you” under the heart.

When he wakes up in the morning, the I love you has been crossed out, but the heart stayed, and Steve can make out that the heart was traced over again, and smiles a little.

Steve finally leaves the hospital and is able to start his search for Bucky, aided by Sam. Every day, he draws a picture, writing I love you at the bottom of every drawing. Every day, the I love you gets crossed out, but the drawing gets traced over by a different marker. Steve wants to tell Bucky who he is, and he could easily write it on his arm, but he wants to tell him in person. So, Steve continues to search for him.

Steve gets roughed up after a particularly nasty fight against some rogue Hydra agents, and is sentenced to bed rest again by Sam. He’s annoyed, but spends the time in bed to draw more with his left hand, so that the drawings he does for Bucky still look good.

The I love you wasn’t crossed off today, and Steve noticed some stray marks, as if Bucky was going to write something. Steve starts drawing on his arm again, and in the middle of it notices words appearing on his arm.

“Are you okay?” they say, and Steve assumes it’s because of the new bruises he has.

He risks it, and writes, “Yeah, I’d be better if you were here though.” He moves back to the drawing, waiting to see if Bucky says anything else.

“You wouldn’t want me,” Bucky writes, and Steve can’t help but shake his head and answer, “Try me.” he then writes his address down on his arm so Bucky can see.

Steve finishes the drawing and sets the marker down, trying to figure out what else to do. The window is open, so he looks out of it, watching the birds fly past. At some point he falls asleep, being jolted awake by a loud thud somewhere. 

Steve looks out the window and sees that it’s night time already. He sits up on the bed and reaches for the glass of water on the nightstand, freezing when he notices he’s not the only person in the room.

“Bucky?” Steve breathes, barely above a whisper, wondering if he was still dreaming.

Bucky stands up off of the floor in front of the window. “I – I must have the wrong place,” Bucky mutters. “I’m sorry.”

“No wait!” Steve says as Bucky turns to go, reaching his right hand out towards Bucky. He leans forward and the moonlight hits his face. 

Bucky turns to look at him again and stops, noticing the same bruise on Steve’s face that he noticed on his own face recently. He looks down at Steve’s outstretched arm, and sees the writing and drawings covering his arm, identical to the ones on Bucky’s arm.

“Steve?” he questions, and Steve nods, understanding what his unspoken words are asking. Steve moves out of the bed slowly and walks over to Bucky, slowly wrapping his arms around him and enveloping him in a hug. 

Bucky hesitates for a few seconds, but returns the hug, and the two men stay like that for a while, Steve putting all of his love into the hug. When Steve finally pulls away, he reconnects with Bucky immediately, pulling him into a kiss.

“I love you,” Steve says, whispering against Bucky’s lips. “Please, don’t leave.”

Bucky smiles for the first time in a long time. “You can’t get rid of me that easy, punk.”


	20. End Of The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Rose39 - Proposal: it's bleak, there doesn't look like a lot of hope. Just as the two are about to go out for what might be their last mission, one of them proposes(your choice who)
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Sorry it ended up being so short :(

Steve and Bucky stand in silence on the quinjet, autopilot set for their next – and possibly last – mission. There was a monster loose in England with incredible fire powers. It already burned down half of Buckingham Palace and put a hole in the side of Big Ben, as well as already killing thousands. Everyone else was occupied with other missions, so it was up to Steve and Bucky alone. Needless to say, their chance of success was looking pretty low. 

Steve walks down to the end of the quinjet and sits down, foot drilling a hole in the floor with how fast he’s tapping it. Bucky walks over to him and sits next to him, resting his hand on Steve’s leg to try and still it. 

Steve notices and stops moving his leg, muttering, “Sorry.”

Bucky leans over and kisses Steve’s cheek. “It’s okay to be nervous, Steve.” He pauses, thinking. “Would talking help?”

Steve sighs and rubs his face. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

Bucky rests his head on Steve’s shoulder to comfort him, and Steve sighs again.

“I guess, I just don’t want to lose you. Again.”

Bucky nods. “Yeah, I’d rather not lose you either.”

“You don’t have to come, Buck. Stay on the quinjet, I can handle this –”

Bucky cuts him off with a kiss on his lips. “No, Steve,” he says once he’s pulled away. “Remember, I’m with you till the end of the line.”

Steve shakes his head fondly at Bucky. They’re silent again for awhile until Bucky moves his head off of Steve and starts the conversation again.

“I’ve been thinking,” he starts, moving his hand to fiddle with something in his pocket. “We’ve been together for a long time now, right?”

“Yeah?” Steve says, wondering why Bucky cares about that.

“I want to make a promise to you. That no matter what happens, I’m yours forever.”

“Till the end of the line, right?” Steve says, a small smile on his face.

Bucky half nods, saying, “Yes, but I had a different idea in mind.” Bucky slides off of the chair and onto the floor, down onto one knee. He pulls a box out of his pocket and opens it, revealing a ring. “Steve, I want to be yours for forever. I want you to be mine for forever. If we get out of this, I want to marry you. If we don’t..” Bucky shrugs. “At least we promised.”

Steve smiles down at Bucky, tears forming in his eyes. “Of course, Bucky. I’d love to marry you.”

Bucky slips the ring onto Steve’s finger and then Steve pulls him up into a kiss. They pull apart when the autopilot announces, “Two minutes to landing.”

Steve picks his shield up off of the floor and Bucky pulls some of his guns off of the wall, and then they stand at the door of the quinjet, linking hands before the door opens into the fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Want more shipping one shots? Go check out Rose39's fic [here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15451497/chapters/35865957)


	21. Perfect To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Request by AJ- I've read somewhere that since the WS was "only" around for 50 years that means it took 20 years to break Bucky, and I just wished a story based on that, please. Maybe Bucky feeling ashamed because i the end he still broke, and Steve reminding him that no one would have fought back for so long. Just some hurt/comfort and Steve making sure Bucky knows he is loved :) 
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you enjoy!  
> CW: Minor violence, mentions of torture

“Sergeant Barnes,” a voice calls out from the darkness, eerily familiar. “I see you have returned.”

Bucky slowly opens his eyes to find himself strapped down to a table. He looks around the room at all the different science equipment before his eyes land on a short, balding man. 

Bucky clenches his fists. “Zola,” he mutters. 

The man smiles and nods. “Indeed. I told you we were not quite finished with you yet, didn’t I? But then the Captain had to come and save you, and the experiments were put on hold. No matter now, the Captain is gone, so there is no one to come and save you.”

Bucky tries to pull against the restraints, failing even with all the strength his new metal arm gives him. He doesn’t remember moving, but now he’s strapped into a chair, screaming endlessly until his voice gives out due to the volts of electricity surging through his brain.

It stops all of a sudden, and Bucky sighs with relief. The machine comes off of his head. Someone approaches him and asks, “What is your name?”

“J–” Bucky starts, but he’s not so sure anymore. So he starts again, “B–”

“Put him back in,” the scientist says, “He’s still got something there.”

The machinery moves to cover Bucky’s head again, and he closes his eyes to brace himself for the pain. It never comes though, so instead, he opens his eyes again. 

“Your time has come,” a voice echos, but Bucky can’t see anything around him but darkness. “You must face your final test now, before we send you out.”

A man appears with Bucky, one who looks strangely familiar. But his form is inconsistent – one minute the man is tall and broad, the next he’s short and skinny. The only thing that stays consistent is the man’s hair and eyes – a sandy blonde complete with ocean blue.

“Kill him,” the incorporeal voice whispers. 

Bucky looks down at his hands and sees a gun. “I don’t know this man, why would I kill him?” Bucky asks the voice, but it doesn’t answer. He loses control of his arm as it raises up, gun pointing at the man, aiming for his head.

The man’s form has solidified into the larger one, and is looking back at Bucky pleadingly. Bucky tries to lower his arm, but he can’t. The gun fires, and the man drops to the ground, a bloody hole in the middle of his forehead. 

Bucky gains control over himself again and drops next to the body, tears streaming from his eyes as he realizes who it is. “Steve?” he whispers, picking up his lifeless form and pulling him into his lap.

“Steve, please,” Bucky cries, knowing there’s no hope to save him, but still trying to believe Steve might still be alive. He presses a kiss against his cold lips, moving his hand to Steve’s heart. 

Bucky pulls away from Steve and looks at his face again, and then puts his forehead against his hand, crying.

“Bucky?” he hears, but he can’t have heard it. Steve is dead. He just killed him.

“Bucky, breathe. Please, Bucky, come on, wake up –”

Bucky opens his eyes suddenly and gasps for air, his forehead against his hand, which is tangled up in the bed sheets. Moonlight trickles in from the window next to him as he breathes heavily, trying to regain control.

He flinches when a hand touches his human arm and it immediately is pulled away. Bucky looks up to see Steve sitting in front of him on the bed, moonlight highlighting the concern on his face, _alive._

“Steve,” Bucky croaks, reaching out towards him.

Steve catches Bucky’s hands and, when Bucky doesn’t move away, he moves closer to Bucky, pulling Bucky the rest of the way into his lap. Bucky’s arms wrap around Steve, clinging to him, as Bucky buries his face in Steve’s chest, breathing in the scent of him, making sure he’s really there. Steve rubs circles along Bucky’s back slowly, and they sit like that for a long time. 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky mutters eventually, finally getting his breathing down to normal.

“For what?’ Steve asks, moving Bucky’s hair away from the side of his face so Steve can hear him better. 

Bucky doesn’t answer for a while, thinking about what all he is sorry for. _Waking you up in the middle of the night all the time,_ he thinks. _Almost killing you on the helicarrier. Not being with you when you woke up in this strange place. Making you think I had died all those years ago._

“For breaking,” he finally says. It’s not everything he wants to say, but it sums up a lot of it.

“Oh, Bucky,” Steve says, resting his head on top of Bucky’s. “It’s not your fault.”

“But Steve,” he starts, ready to give a list of ways things would have been different if he hadn’t broken, but he doesn’t have it in him, so the room goes silent.

Steve gently places his hands on the sides of Bucky’s head and pulls it away from his chest, forcing Bucky to look up at him.

“Bucky, that’s not something you need to be sorry about. It’s amazing how long you were able to hold out. No one is holding it against you, with everything they did to you.”

Bucky grips Steve’s biceps hard, anchoring him as he says, “But I killed so many people. I almost killed you.”

“But you didn’t,” Steve says, offering Bucky a small smile. “You woke up. You pulled me out of the river. Any normal person would never have lasted that long against Hydra, or been able to wake themselves up like that.”

“Then what does that make me?” Bucky asks. “If I’m not normal, then what am I?”

Steve leans in and softly kisses Bucky. When he pulls away, he says, “A perfect human being.”

“Come on, Steve,” Bucky says, breaking away from Steve’s hands to turn his head away. “You know that’s not true.”

“You’re wrong,” Steve answers. “You’re perfect to me.”

Bucky turns back to look at Steve, wanting to say something else, but instead tears fill his eyes again, and he starts choking, burying his head back into Steve’s chest. 

“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Steve says, running his hand on Bucky’s back again.

“Stark doesn’t like me,” Bucky says once he’s done crying again. “I killed his parents.”

Steve purses his lips. “Jarvis, is Tony still up?”

“Isn’t he always?” Jarvis responds. “Is there something you need, Captain?”

“Call him for me, will ya?”

Bucky looks up at Steve in confusion. Steve just looks over to the wall where Jarvis is projecting a video screen.

“This is Tony,” Tony says once he appears on the screen. “What’s up, Cap, Cyborg? Another rough night?”

Steve nods. “I need your help with something.”

“Shoot,” Tony says, leaning back in his chair and fiddling with something in his hand. 

“How do you feel about Bucky?”

Tony looks at him, confused. “I’m not trying to steal your man, Cap. Don’t worry.”

Steve frowns. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh? He’s cool, I guess. Would be cooler if he’d let me look at his arm, but…” Tony shrugs. “You win some, you lose some.”

Bucky turns to look at Tony, head still resting on Steve’s chest. “You don’t hate me?”

“Why, because you killed my parents? Sure, I was mad, and I don’t know that I’ll ever one hundred percent forgive you, but, after I had Jarvis pull up what he could find on you, and I read some of the stuff they did to you, I have come to accept your apology. I thought I told you that? Anyways, if you’re still up for it, the lab’s always open for you so I can look at the mechanics of that arm.”

Steve smiles. “Thanks, Tony. That’s all.”

“Anytime.” The screen cuts to black, and then disappears from the wall entirely.

Steve turns back to Bucky. “See, he doesn’t hate you. And you don’t have anything else on the rest of the avengers, so –”

“Natasha,” Bucky blurts out. “I shot her.”

Steve sighs. “Jarvis?”

“Ms. Romanoff is awake. Asking her now.” 

“Thanks, Jarvis.”

Bucky mutters, “Sam too. I ripped out his wing and threw him off of the helicarrier.”

The screen turns on and Natasha takes in the sight of the two super soldiers clinging to each other's arms.

“What’s up?” She says, looking to Steve.

“Bucky’s having a bit of a self esteem issue at the moment. You think you can help us out?”

“I’ll leave the complimenting to you,” Natasha says, a small smirk splaying across her lips. “But, if this is about you shooting me, Bucky, I’m over it. You were doing what you were told, and didn’t have a choice. I’m still alive.” She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

Bucky doesn’t answer, and Steve gives Natasha a nod. “Thanks.”

Natasha nods back, and the screen cuts to black again. Then, across the screen, it says, “Calling Sam”.

“Wilson,” Sam groans, turning onto his side in his bed to look at the screen. “Nightmare?”

“Sam,” Steve says, “I’m sorry. Were you sleeping?”

Sam deadpans and says, “Uh, yeah. That’s what normal people do at three in the morning.”

Steve smiles sheepishly. “I’m sorry, Jarvis shouldn’t have waken you.”

Sam sits up slowly. “No, no, it’s not you. I told Jarvis if Bucky ever needed me to get me. Even if I’m asleep. Even if I’m not in the tower.”

“Why?” Bucky asks timidly, and Sam cracks a tired smile. 

“Hey man, as much as I like to hate on you, it’s all just for fun. I don’t actually hate you. Besides, I used to work in the V.A. I know a thing or two about having nightmares like these and how to deal with them.”

Bucky stares at him for a few seconds before turning away, back into Steve’s chest. 

Steve smiles apologetically at Sam. “Sorry to wake you. I think we’re good here now.”

Sam yawns. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll get you back somehow.” The screen goes black.

Bucky mutters, “You guys are all idiots.”

Steve sighs. It takes a while before Bucky is ready to move again. When he is, Steve takes him to the kitchen and makes some tea to help calm him down. This wasn’t the first nightmare. It won’t be the last. But, Steve plans on being there with Bucky for all of them, always there to remind him how perfect he is to Steve.


	22. Winter Soldiers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by BoomboomboomCLAP: Could you please write a fic where Steve was captured along with Bucky, so they are both the winter soldier and the avengers have to take them in?  
> THANK YOU
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you enjoy!

“Bucky! No!” Steve yells as he watches Bucky get blown out of the hole in the side of the train. Steve turns and knocks the last Hydra agent out, then runs over to the hole in the train to see Bucky dangling from a railing on the wall.

Steve immediately jumps out and grabs the railing, trying to reach over to Bucky. They stretch their arms as far as they can go, the groaning of the railing threatening to make them fall. Their fingers brush against each other’s and the railing snaps. Steve and Bucky find themselves both screaming and falling down into the ravine. Steve tries to reach out for Bucky again, but then he hits his head on a rock jutting out of the cliff side, knocking him out cold.

Steve presumed he was dead. That is, until he woke up in a cell, his uniform having been stripped from him and a jumpsuit put on instead. 

He stands and wavers a bit, his vision going blurry. He tries to remember what happened for him to end up in there. They were on a train, going after Hydra, when…

Steve’s vision goes crystal clear and he runs to the bars of the cell, yelling, “Bucky? Bucky, where are you?” If Steve was still alive, and was here in this cell, maybe, just maybe, Bucky was too.

A soldier comes over to the cell and stands in front of Steve. 

“I see you’re awake,” he says in an accent Steve can’t quite identify. 

“What have you done with Bucky?!” He says, and the soldier laughs. 

“Your companion? He was dead when we found you. You won’t find him here.”

Steve couldn’t bear hearing this information, but there was only a small chance Bucky could have survived from that height. He sits down on the floor, hard, the soldier snickering at him.

On the other side of the building, Bucky was in the middle of a similar conversation. He had woken up strapped to a table with a metal arm instead of his actual arm, asking for Steve. He knew the other man had fallen with him. The scientists fed him the same lie – Steve was dead, only Bucky made it out alive. 

They made sure to keep the two men separate as they tortured them, brainwashing them. It took years for them to break, but they did eventually. When they finally broke, Hydra used them as weapons. 

Bucky was the sharpshooter, killing people from a distance, remaining unseen. 

Steve was used less frequently, not the best at using weapons so is restricted to hand to hand and little pistols, going undercover to gain information and kill the occasional person.

They always make sure to keep the two apart, never pulling them out of cryo at the same time. They didn’t know what would have happened if they did, and didn’t want to know.

At least, until they had no other choice.

“Sir,” Rumlow says entering the room, “We’re having issues with the Avengers.”

“Still? I thought we brought the asset out,” Pierce answers, not looking up from his stack of papers.

“He is. The Black Widow has been giving him some – issues.”

Pierce looks up from his papers at that. “What kind of issues?”

“He can’t kill her. And she has now warned the other Avengers of his presence.”

It’s silent for a few minutes as Pierce thinks. “Then we have no other choice. Pull the other one out and brief him. You’re in charge.”

Rumlow nods. “Yes, sir.”  
~~~  
“I’m telling you, I’ve been seeing things.”

Bruce puts his head in his hands and sighs. “What have you been seeing, Tony.”

Tony pulls a couple parts off of his latest suit model and says, “You know, my dad never shut up about Captain America. Probably his most famous project. You know how that story ends, him and his best friend fell off of a train. Luckily, we were still able to get info out of that scientist and win the war.”

“And what does this have to do with you seeing things?” Bruce asks.

Tony presses a button and a screen pops up, covered in black and white photos of Captain America. “My dad showed me some of these pictures more times than I can remember.”

Bruce sighs. “You think you’ve been seeing Captain America around New York?”

Tony points at Bruce. “Almost. There’s no way I could mistake that face for someone else. I’ve been seeing Captain America around in New York.”

“When was the last time you slept?”

Tony rolls his eyes. “I’m not sleep deprived, Bruce.”

“Really? Because you just said you’ve seen a man who has been dead for over seventy years!”

Tony grabs a blueberry and pops it in his mouth. “But, you see, their bodies were never found. So –”

“You think him or both of them are still alive? How?” Tony’s piqued his interest now.

“How much do you know about cryogenics?”  
~~~  
Steve was ordered to keep an eye on five people, reporting in anything he saw them do. Hydra’s goal was to learn more about the group before having Bucky try and attack them again. So Steve did what he was best at – hiding in plain sight. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get into the tower without raising suspicion, but he was able to stick close by and follow any of the five who came out of the building around. 

One fateful evening, he was watching Tony Stark from behind a newspaper on a bench when there was a loud explosion nearby. 

He forgot he had an earpiece in when he hears, “Asset one is out of control. Requesting back up immediately,” from Rumlow, followed by an address that just happens to be really close to where Steve is now.

Considering himself as backup Steve starts towards the address, being careful to continue to blend in for the time being. He looks up as Iron Man flies past him, followed by Thor, each of them carrying someone. Steve quickens his pace, torn between following the mission or going to be the requested back up.

Luckily, they turned out to both be at the same place. He watches from down the street as the Avengers stand wearily outside of the building the bomb had gone off in. Steve sneaks around them and in through the back, following the sound of fighting up a few floors.

Rumlow shouts at him when he sees him, “Why are you not following your mission?!”

Steve replies in a monotone voice, “Backup requested. Followed mission to backup address.”

Rumlow’s eyes grow wide and he curses. “Shit! The Avenger’s are here! Everyone, clear out, now!” He goes to run past Steve but stops, backtracking. “New mission, override alpha one seven. Stop him,” he says, pointing across the room to a man with long, dark hair strutting towards them. He runs away after that, not knowing that the two assets had never been allowed to see each other for a reason.

Steve moves to block the only exit from the room off so the man can’t escape. They stand there, glaring at each other. Steve notices the man has a metal arm, and as he studies the man, watches as the expression in his eyes changes from rage to remembrance.

“Steve?” the man whispers, loud enough that Steve’s enhanced ears can hear it. 

“Who the hell is Steve?” comes his response, but as he looks into those eyes – there’s no way he’s seen them before, has he?

“Please, Steve,” the man pleads. “Let me through. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Steve doesn’t budge, and Bucky sighs, tossing his gun to the side. He then walks over to Steve and makes to go past him, so Steve starts to attack. He goes to punch the man, but the man blocks it with his metal arm, grunting, “Come on, Steve.”

The two men get into a fist fight, punching and dodging as they try to achieve their goal. They pause when they watch an arrow whiz in between them, narrowly missing their heads. They turn to look at the source when the arrow goes off, creating a blinding light and an ear-splitting noise. Steve can’t see or hear anything, but he can feel strong arms wrap around his neck from behind, trying to knock him out. He barely registers that both of them are human as he flips the person over himself, but the man’s grip is strong, and he pulls Steve along with him.

Steve hits his head on something when he hits the ground and his head starts spinning, what little he can see again not staying still. The man tightens his grip, and Steve tries to fight back, but his vision starts to grow dark, and soon, he’s unconscious.  
~~~  
Bucky leans against the wall in his cell, sitting on the bed. It was a decent room, all things considering, and was better than any prison he would have gone in if anyone other than Tony Stark had found the two of them. He hasn’t seen much of anyone, besides the occasional person to slide food and drink through the slot for him.

Bucky spends his days thinking about Steve. The man has to be here somewhere, they wouldn’t have separated them now. But Bucky doesn’t want the Avengers to think he’s a threat anymore, so he doesn’t pick the lock to escape and go look for Steve.

Someone clears their throat on the other side of the bars, and Bucky looks over. There was Black Widow, the one who managed to take him down and get him in this cell. He knew she was there, he had just been ignoring her.

“We captured everyone who ran out of the building before we got you,” she starts, trying to get a reaction out of Bucky. “We’ve been interrogating them this whole time. Tony made a truth serum, it worked wonders. Now, all of them are in jail, as well as their leader, Alexander Pierce.”

Bucky knows she’s looking for a reaction, so he doesn’t give her one. She stares at him for a while before continuing.

“Why haven’t you broken out yet?” She says, gaining a quick glance from Bucky, and she smiles. “We’re not stupid. I put you in this one because I knew it would be easy for you to break out. I wanted to test you. With that metal arm of yours, you could have easily broken the bars, or at least managed to pick the lock if you were looking for something more subtle. You should see the place we put your friend in, it’s not as good as this.”

Bucky finally fully looks over to her, glaring. “What have you done to Steve,” he growls out, a statement rather than a question.

She quirks her eyebrow at that. “Nothing. He gave Thor quite the headache when we were capturing him, but otherwise, he doesn’t seem as stable as you, so his cell has more reinforcement on it. Don’t want him getting out. Trust me, we aren’t going to hurt a previously dead national icon, no matter what he’s done.”

Bucky leans back against the wall, tired. “But I’m not one.”

“You’re right. You’re not. We could have killed you when we captured you, and no one would have batted an eyelash, right? Who would even remember James Buchanan Barnes, the whole reason Captain America even made it into the war?” She drops a pile of papers into the cell. “Read over them if you want. You don’t have to.” With that, she walks away.

It takes Bucky a day before he even looks at the pile, and another two before finally giving in and picking them up. He shuffles through newspaper clippings, all of them mentioning his old self in some shape or form. Then he gets to the comics – Captain America and his best friend, Bucky Barnes. The costumes they were in looked ridiculous, and as he thumbed through a couple of copies, the fights seemed even more so. Then, at the bottom of the stack, were papers preserved in plastic. He glances at the first one and sets them down, hitting his head on the wall as he leans back.

He doesn’t know how much time passes before he finally works up the courage to look a the letters again, but when he does, he reads each one over and over, fingers tracing the smooth handwriting of Steve’s and his own rough handwriting in letters they had exchanged before Steve joined the war and they were together again.

“Most people missed the code,” Natasha says, having appeared outside the cell again. “I didn’t. Did you come up with it on your own?”

Bucky nods, fingers still tracing the delicate papers through the plastic coating.

“It was smart, hiding something like that in plain sight, so if anyone else was to read your letters it wouldn’t give anything away. Unfortunately, that means everyone else also missed a big component in your relationship.”

Bucky looks up at Natasha fully, a pleading look in his eyes. “Can I see him?” he asks, voice catching in his throat as he speaks.

Natasha looks him over before saying, “We’re not going to hurt you. Either of you. We’ve read everything that happened, and we know that neither of you had a choice, that they controlled you.” she pauses as she looks down the hall. “He’s not stable yet. I don’t know what he’d do to you.”

“Please,” Bucky whispers. “Maybe – maybe I can help.”

Natasha doesn’t say anything, wordlessly walking over to the cell door to unlock it. Bucky waits for her to pull out handcuffs or something, but she doesn’t, just motioning for him to follow her. Bucky takes this wholeheartedly – she’s showing him she trusts him by letting him out without any restraints, as well as letting him walk behind her instead of in front where she can keep an eye on him.

He follows her down the hall until they reach the end. There, he can see what she meant by extra reinforcement. Where his cell had bars and a door, Steve’s has an entire plasma wall, with a little section to turn off for access to the cell. He can see Steve laying on the bed from here, and almost breaks down right there and then.

Another man, one Bucky vaguely remembers going by Hawkeye, stands watch, muttering to Natasha, “Are you sure about this?”

Natasha simply nods and gestures to Bucky. He takes a deep breath and stands in front of the plasma wall, and Natasha turns that portion off, allowing Bucky to walk into the cell. It closes behind him, and he hears Natasha pulling the other man away with her, to give them some privacy.

Bucky takes a step closer to Steve and sees the man isn’t sleeping, like he previously thought, but is just staring up at the ceiling.

“Hi,” Bucky starts tentatively, clearing his throat when it doesn’t come out clear. He sees Steve glance at him and then look back up at the ceiling.

“I was wondering,” Bucky starts, not sure what to say. “Do you remember me?”

Steve looks back at him, eyes doing a quick once-over before stilling on Bucky’s face. “I think so,” he mutters, slowly sitting up on the bed. “What are you here for? You want information? I don’t know how much I can give.”

“No,” Bucky answers, slowly sitting down next to Steve on the bed. “I’m here to help.”

“Help? I don’t know what you’re here to help for. In case you missed it,” Steve gestures towards the plasma wall. “It’s a little hard to escape from here.”

“Not that. I – I’m here for you. I want you to try and remember.”

Steve leans his head back against the wall. “So you’re a scientist then? Is that why they were trying to get me to stop you? You’re pretty strong for just a scientist.”

Bucky shakes his head. “No, Steve. I – They did the same stuff to me that they did to you.”

Steve takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “Oh.”

Bucky places his real hand on top of Steve’s gently, giving him time to pull back if he didn’t want the touch. Steve seems surprised at this, but Steve doesn’t move his hand away.

“Did we know each other before all of this?” Steve breathes out, eyes focused on their hands. 

“Yes,” Bucky says with a small smile. “We did.”

Steve looks up to Bucky. “Can you – help me remember?”

Bucky stares into Steve’s blue eyes and sees the same man he fell in love with all those years ago. He suppresses the sudden flood of memories in favor of leaning in close to Steve, softly pressing his lips against Steve’s.

He pulls back and says, “Of course, Punk.”

He watches as a trace of a smile forms on Steve’s face. “Thanks, Jerk.”


	23. High School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Liar Princess: High school AU Pre-serum and nerd steve is being bullied but the school's most popular and handsomest jock bucky comes to his rescue 
> 
> Thanks for the prompt! I hope you enjoy!

Steve grips the strap of his backpack tighter as he walks into the school, keeping his head down as he walks through the building. The latest bruise from a fight yesterday bloomed across his face this morning, and he’d rather not have another one join it today.

Since he’s not paying attention, he hits his shoulder on someone’s arm.

“Sorry,” Steve says, looking up at the person to apologize. He looks straight up into the blue eyes of the most popular jock at school, Bucky. His hair framed his face as he smiled at Steve.

“Don’t worry, no harm done.”

“Hey, Bucky!” another guy calls from down the hall. “That game Friday was insane! They wouldn’t have survived without you.” He punches Bucky’s shoulder, and Bucky rubs the spot, bashful.

“Oh, I’m sure they would have done good without me.”

Steve sees that Bucky’s attention has changed, so he slips away, thankful that didn’t end in a fight. He heads straight for his first class, missing the glance Bucky gives over his shoulder at him as he walks away.

The first few classes go like normal for Steve – he turns his homework in, learns something new, and gets more homework to do that night. It’s when he reaches fourth period, art, that things start to change.

There are no assigned seats in there, the teacher not caring as long as they finish their projects. Steve always sits in the corner table, farthest from the door, and is always alone. He pulls his project out of the folder and takes it to his seat, pulling out a pencil to continue on the sketch. 

“That’s a nice sketch you’ve got there,” someone says, causing Steve to look up.

Bucky puts his project down on the table across from Steve and takes the chair, sitting down.

“Uhh, thanks,” Steve says, not used to compliments.

“I didn’t catch your name earlier,” Bucky continues, focusing intently on Steve.

Steve nods and purses his lips, then looks up from his sketch again. “Look, I don’t know why you’re being nice to me all of a sudden. If this is for a joke or something, I’d appreciate it if you’d just stop now.”

Bucky’s smile falls, and he says in a serious tone, “People do that?”

Steve rolls his eyes. “Yeah. Everyone does. No one actually wants to be friends with the short, skinny guy who gets sick all the time. People use me for bets, seeing how long they can convince me they actually want to be friends.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Don’t really trust anyone anymore.”

Bucky looks down to his own project for a while, the two of them sitting in silence. He looks back up to Steve. “My name’s James. I don’t know where the nickname Bucky came from, but everyone calls me that.” He sighs and leans back in the chair. “I don’t know how I got so popular. All I wanted to do was play football. I didn’t want all the popularity it’s given me.”

Steve glances up at Bucky and his voice catches in his throat as he takes in the sight of the boy looking up at the fluorescent lights. He clears his throat and looks back down at his project, trying to hide the blush creeping up his cheeks. 

They sit in silence the rest of the class, Steve barely getting any work done as he becomes distracted by Bucky sitting there. The bell rings and Steve immediately stands and puts his project away.

He turns around and Bucky is standing at the table, picking up his bag. Steve picks up his own and looks at Bucky, saying, “It’s Steve,” before leaving the room to go to his next class. Bucky smiles as he watches Steve walk out of the class.

The rest of the day, nothing special happened to Steve. He had a burger and milk for lunch, and managed not to get into any fights in the cafeteria. His other classes went like normal as well, and Steve gets in and out of his locker at the end of the day and out of the school without anyone getting into a fight with him.

The rest of the week goes like this – everything is normal, except Bucky now sits with Steve in art. They don’t talk much, but Steve feels himself growing fond of the other boy, ever so slowly.

Until Friday. Steve was at his locker at the end of the day, trying to get his homework, when the locker suddenly slams shut in front of him. He turns to look at the person who did it.

“Hey there, small-fry,” the boy says with an evil smile on his face. 

“Oliver,” Steve says, squaring his shoulders to seem taller.

“You’ve been avoiding us all week, haven’t you?” Oliver responds, and Steve sees two other boys over his shoulder. 

“What do you want from me?” Steve says, holding his bag in front of him to possibly shield himself from an attack if they try and hit him. 

Oliver looks over his shoulder at the other two boys and says, “Is there anything we want from this idiot, guys?” They snicker and nod their heads, and Oliver turns back to Steve. “Oh yeah, that’s right. There is something we want from you.” He shoves at Steve, and Steve loses his balance for a second, almost falling over, but regaining his balance.

“We want to know why a loser like you thinks you can actually achieve anything here,” one of the other guys says, “You’re too skinny to ever amount to anything.” He swings at Steve and Steve uses his bag to block it, but the force of the punch bashes him into the lockers next to them.

The third boy rips Steve’s bag out of his hands and throws it behind them down the hall, and then they all start to fight Steve. Three against one is unfair in any situation, but even more so now, when the three are muscular and the one by himself is a twig. Steve manages to get a punch in across Oliver’s face, sparking outrage in the boy. He picks Steve up by his shirt and throws him into the lockers, and Steve slides down them onto the floor, unable to catch his breath after it was knocked out of him due to his asthma. Now that he’s down on the ground, the boys start to kick him, each jarring blow sending a wave of pain through Steve as he tries his hardest to get back up.

“Hey,” someone calls from down the hall, causing the three boys to look up. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size.”

The boys sneer at the newcomer and start to kick Steve again, but stop all of a sudden when he starts to fight them. Steve watches the fight from the ground, only being able to see the feet, but seeing the new guy is making the others run away. When all three of them are gone, Steve moves to his hands and knees to try and get up, a low groan escaping his mouth due to his bruised ribs. A hand appears in Steve’s vision, offering to help him up, and Steve takes it, using his other hand to hold his side.

His eyes grow wide as he goes to thank his helper and sees that it’s Bucky, along with a small bruise across his jaw.

“I had them on the ropes,” Steve says, and Bucky laughs.

“Sure you did, pal.” Bucky reaches up to brush the hair out of Steve’s eyes. “Come on, they beat you up pretty bad. The nurse should still be here, and if not, I know a thing or two about patching you up.” Bucky slings Steve’s arm over his shoulder and they start to walk together down the hall. 

“Why did you help me?” Steve asks, halfway down the hall. “Everyone usually just – walks away. Ignores it. But you – you actually fought them off. For me, of all people.”

Bucky looks over at him and smiles, then leans in and presses a soft kiss against Steve's cheek. “It’s probably because I can see you for the stubborn ass you are,” Bucky teases.

Any normal time Steve would have had a comeback to that, but _Bucky just kissed him_ and he can feel himself blushing, face probably red as a tomato, so all he can do is mutter, “Jerk.” 

Bucky doesn’t answer before they make it to the nurse’s office, which is empty but still unlocked, so Bucky takes him in and sits him on one of the tables and then goes looking through the cabinets for bandages, mumbling, “I could get in so much trouble for doing this, you punk. Next time you get in a fight, make sure I’m there first.”

He comes back with the bandages and starts to wrap a spot on Steve’s leg when Steve leans down and kisses his forehead with the same soft touch Bucky used kissing his own cheek. “Thanks,” Steve whispers to Bucky, and Bucky looks up at him.

It’s too soon, too early to think about an actual kiss, so Bucky just offers Steve the biggest smile he’s ever made and says, “Any time.”


	24. Handprint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Instead of working on the requests I'm behind in, I had a soulmate au idea that I wrote out instead. This is one of those where you have a mark on your skin where your soulmate first touches you and when they do touch you, it turns into a rainbow of colors. Hope you enjoy!

James Buchanan Barnes was born with a handprint on the inside of his right forearm, facing upside down. His mother thought it was adorable, and knew that it meant someday her son would find true love. 

As Bucky grew up and learned the meaning of this handprint, he grew confused, wondering what would cause his soulmate to touch his arm first, when most people see their marks on their hands, typically meaning handshakes. 

Somewhere else in Brooklyn is a boy named Steve, who has a mark identical to the one Bucky has, albeit larger. Steve too has wondered what would cause a handprint to form there, but he doesn’t have to wait for very long to find out. 

One day Steve is in the middle of a fight in an alley near the school. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary about it, he was used to getting into fights after school. He was also used to getting beat up in said fights as well, so when he found himself curled up on the ground trying to block out the two older boys kicks, he wasn’t surprised. He was prepared to wait there until they got tired of kicking.

Steve never expected anyone to show up to help him. He was usually alone when he got into fights, but then again, he was the cause of most of them, so no one else was really around to help. The stranger that just chased off the boys holds his arm out to help Steve up, so he reaches his right arm out to the stranger and doesn’t even realize what was so important about that until they grip each other’s arms. As Bucky pulls him up, a jolt of electricity runs through him, and he jumps back, confused. The other boy looks just as bewildered as he does, and then Steve remembers what’s on his arm.

He rolls his sleeve up as fast as he can and looks down at his arm, the handprint no longer a solid color, but a vibrant rainbow of reds and blues, as well as a little bit of green. He looks up to the other boy again to find he is in a similar position as Steve, with his sleeve rolled up and a handprint flashing bright colors.

“Steve,” he says, holding his hand out in greetings.

“Bucky,” is the response, and he joins their arms again at their soulmarks, another jolt of electricity racing through their bodies.

Bucky and Steve quickly grow close to each other, and soon they are inseparable. As they grow older the threat of war looms over them, and Bucky is drafted into the army. Steve desperately wants to join him – partially because he wants to fight and help out the United States, but he also doesn’t know that he can bear being away from Bucky for so long. So Steve enlists and gets denied.

He enlists again and is denied, again. Bucky comes back from training and tries to talk him out of it, to keep him home and safe. Another enlistment. Another denial.

The fourth time Steve does it he is close to giving up, afraid he could get arrested before he ever makes it into the army. But then Bucky shows up in his uniform and says he’s shipping out the next day, and Steve grows determined again. He slips away from Bucky at the Stark Expo to try again at enlisting when he sees a sign for it nearby.

Of course Bucky finds him, Bucky always does. They have an argument before Steve can get in line, but in the end they end up hugging it out since Bucky has to leave. 

“You’re a punk,” Bucky says, reaching out to Steve.

“Jerk,” Steve responds, reconnecting his hand with Bucky’s soulmate mark and hugging him with his other arm. The same warm jolt of electricity flows through him, as it always does when one of them touches the other’s soulmark. Bucky pulls away to leave, and Steve calls out, “Don’t win the war till I get there.”

Bucky turns back around with a stupid grin on his face, giving Steve a small salute, and then Steve turns back around to try and enlist again.  
~~~  
A few weeks later, Bucky is changing when he catches sight of his soulmate mark. He stares at it for a few seconds before bringing his other hand up to try and cover it. He sees that the hand is slightly bigger than Bucky’s own now.

“What the hell have you done now, Steve,” Bucky mutters to himself, and sits down to write out a letter to Steve.  
~~~  
Steve found a way around Bucky’s questioning, not wanting to tell Bucky just yet that he signed up for a scientific experiment that made him a lot bigger than he was before. He barely manages to convince the tour managers to perform a show for the army, so that he can see Bucky again and tell him in person. It’s there that he finds out that Bucky was captured, and is currently missing. They tell him Bucky’s probably dead now, but Steve knows better than that – his handprint is still as colorful as the first day they met.

Steve can’t stand another second knowing Bucky is in trouble and sets out to try and rescue him. When he breaks into the factory and finds the rest of Bucky’s division, he is upset that Bucky is not among them, and asks the nearest soldier where he might be. That's when he earns that Hydra is experimenting on some of the prisoners, and Bucky happened to be one of them.

He quickly runs through the factory to try and find where they are keeping Bucky until he sees someone running out of a room down the hall. He and the man stop and stare at each other for a few seconds, and the man suddenly turns and starts to run away as fast as he can. Steve starts to follow but stops to look in the room the man left when he hears someone groan. 

He enters the room and there’s Bucky, strapped to a table in the middle of a lab, repeating his name and serial number.

“Bucky?” Steve says, rushing over to him and looking over them. “God, what have they done to you?”

Steve easily snaps the restraints that were holding Bucky down as Bucky looks over to him and mutters, “Steve?”

Steve uses his right hand to pull Bucky up off of the table, their hands brushing over each other’s soulmarks. The jolt of electricity running through Bucky at Steve’s touch is what makes him realize he is not hallucinating this.

“I thought you were dead,” Steve says, pulling Bucky in for a quick hug.

“I thought you were smaller,” a shocked Bucky answers, confused as his head buries into Steve’s chest.

They run out of the factory together, and when Steve has to make an impossible jump to be able to get out of the self-destructing factory, Bucky is right there, reaching out with his right arm, their soulmarks connecting to ensure Steve doesn’t fall into the fire below.  
~~~  
Steve sits in a ruined chair at a ruined table, both of which he had to set back up himself due to the bomb that ruined the bar. It was the last place he and Bucky had been without being out on a mission, just enjoying being together again. Steve pours another drink for himself out of the bottle and drinks it, trying all he can to get himself drunk.

He glances over when he hears a crunching noise to see Peggy standing there, having stepped on some broken glass that was strewn across the floor.

Steve wipes his face with his sleeve and then pours himself another drink, saying, “You know, they said the serum would create a ‘protective system of regeneration and healing’.” He sniffs and downs the glass again. “Which means, I can’t get drunk.”

“They thought it might be one of the side effects,” Peggy says, and picks a chair out of the rubble, sitting at the table with Steve. “It wasn’t your fault, you know.”

“Did you read the report?”

She nods. 

“Then you know that’s not true.” Peggy is about to interject when Steve stops her so he can continue to talk. “Bucky – It was my fault. I was reaching for him with the wrong hand.”

Peggy looks confused. “Why would that matter?”

Steve rolls his sleeve up to reveal the darkened soulmark, the barest trace of colors swirling around on the surface. Peggy starts to connect the dots. “We’ve always been able to help each other if we just connect our marks. But, the way I had to climb out of the train, I was reaching my left arm out to him. So, I couldn’t get to him in time.” Steve wipes the fresh tears off of his face and pours another drink. Peggy stays there with him to console him, understanding Steve will feel like it was his fault for a while.  
~~~  
Steve gets frozen in the middle of the Arctic, meaning he gets to miss the way his mark grows vibrant and then fades away again over and over as the years go by. When he wakes up, it’s back to how he remembered when he went down – muted colors barely visible. It’s not for a few years into this new century when he notices that the colors have become vibrant again. 

He doesn’t know what this means and wants to figure it out, but S.H.I.E.L.D. turns out to be Hydra, and now he’s on the run, not giving him the time to sit and figure out what is going on. It gets pushed to the back of his mind until he’s fighting the Winter Soldier and the man grabs him and throws him to the ground, a shock going through his body that he hasn’t felt in a very long time. He freezes and almost gets stabbed but manages to push back, gaining the upper hand on the Winter Soldier and managing to make his mask fall off.

Steve stops in his tracks as the Winter Soldier looks at him and he sees that he was right. “Bucky?” he asks, upset that Bucky would ever want to hurt him while also shocked he’s still alive.

“Who the hell is Bucky?” comes the response, and that’s when Steve knows they did something to him, he knows that Bucky isn’t willingly fighting.

Because of this knowledge he doesn’t want to fight Bucky, but is given no choice on the helicarrier. Once Steve finishes his mission he relents, and lets Bucky beat him up as he desperately tries to help Bucky remember. 

Shakily, Steve raises his arm and touches Bucky’s mark before Bucky can stop him. Something flashes in Bucky’s eyes and he hesitates on his next punch, and then the helicarrier falls apart and Steve is falling into the ocean below. 

As Steve loses consciousness in the river, he sees a hand appear in his vision, and feels a spark right before he completely blacks out.

Steve wakes up in the hospital a few days later, most of his injuries having been healed over by now thanks to the super soldier serum. Sam is sitting in the chair next to his bed when he wakes up. 

“What happened?” Steve says blearily, and Sam helps him get something to drink before answering.

“Tall, dark, and mysterious pulled you out of the river,” Sam said, and gestures to the corner of the room out of Steve’s eyesight. 

Steve turns slowly so that he can see what Sam was pointing at, and in the corner behind the bed was a chair, and in that chair was Bucky, bandaged up from where Steve hurt him. Steve’s eyes grow wide and tears threaten to spill out.

“Bucky?” he breathes, and he starts to get up before Sam forcefully pushes him back up on the bed.

“Dude, you just woke up. You’re not allowed out of bed yet.”

Steve pouts, so Bucky gets up from the chair and walks over to Steve. “Hey, Punk,” Bucky says shyly.

Steve reaches out for him and Bucky complies, intertwining their arms and holding their hands on each other’s marks. Steve can’t hold the tears back anymore and sees that Bucky is crying too. Bucky leans over Steve and rests his head on his shoulder and Sam leaves, letting the men cry into each other’s shoulder privately.

“I’m sorry,” they both say at the same time, and Bucky picks his head up.

“For what?” he asks as he looks at Steve.

“For leaving you behind. If I had known you were still alive…” 

Bucky cuts him off with a kiss. “There was no way you would have known I was alive, Stevie. It’s okay.”

“What are you sorry for?” Steve asks, moving Bucky’s hair out of his face to see Bucky better.

“I’m the one that put you in here if you’ve forgotten,” Bucky starts. “I almost killed you. I’m not one hundred percent myself yet, but I know enough that killing you would have been awful.”

Steve smiles and says, “Bucky, the only thing that matters to me is that you’re here now, and we’re both alive. Please, stay with me, we can get you back to as close to normal as possible together.” He brushes his lips across Bucky’s forehead. “Please.”

Bucky’s lips turn up with a hint of a smile as he says, “Wouldn’t dream of leaving, pal.”


	25. Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Michelle: Steve being the only one to know Bucky’s ridiculous coffee order
> 
> Thanks for the prompt! I hope you enjoy!

Bucky is sitting in the common room cleaning his guns when Clint walks in.

“Hey Bucky,” Clint says. “I’m going out to Starbucks, you want anything?”

Bucky shrugs. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take a caramel nut mocha latte with an extra shot of vanilla, two shots of espresso, and extra foam.”

Clint stares at him blankly and then blinks, saying, “Okay.”

When he comes back half an hour later, he puts a plastic cup in front of Bucky.

“What the fuck is that?” Bucky asks, staring at the cup.

Clint shrugs. “It’s hard enough to remember Nat’s ridiculous order, I couldn’t remember anything you said by the time I got there.”

Bucky picks it up and examines it. “There’s ice in this. Why the fuck would I want ice?”

Clint shrugs again and quickly runs away, the coffee hitting the wall where Clint had just been and splattering everywhere after Bucky threw it. Later, Steve comes in and sees the mess. 

“What happened here?” he asks, walking over to Bucky. 

“A message,” Bucky says with a glare. “It was poorly received.”  
~~~  
A few days later, Bucky is filling out paperwork when Bruce comes in. 

“Hi there, Bucky. I’m going out for a drink, you want anything?”

Bucky rattles off his order as he continues to fill out the papers. Bruce leaves and Bucky is in silence again.

When Bruce returns, he comes over with a drink for Bucky. “I looked at the calories for that drink, and there is so much sugar you should be getting a heart attack every time you drink it. Try this, it’s better for you.”

Bucky wearily takes the proffered drink and takes a sip, tasting the honey of the tea in the cup.

“Thanks,” Bucky says with a fake smile, not wanting to anger Bruce. Bruce smiles and walks away with his own cup of tea in his hand. Bucky watches him leave and then sets the cup down on the edge of the table to be forgotten.

“Hey, Buck,” Steve says, coming in and leaning over Bucky’s shoulder to see what he’s doing. Steve kisses him on the cheek.

“Hey, Steve. Here, have this.” He picks up the cup of tea and shoves it into Steve’s hands. “You might actually like it, it’s tea.”

“Someone mess your order up again?” Steve says with a smile, and then takes a sip of the tea. 

Bucky nods. “Bruce. I wasn’t about to make him mad.”

Steve laughs. “Good choice.”  
~~~  
Bucky’s in the lab working on designing a new gun when Tony walks in.

“I have thirty-six hours to design a new clean power generator before Pepper expects me to have blueprints ready to present to the board and I’ve been up for forty-eight already, so I need coffee, but the machine broke and I really don’t feel like fixing it right now. Do you want anything while I’m heading out?”

Bucky shrugs. “If you can remember.” He then lists his complicated coffee order off to Tony, and the man disappears. 

He comes back in fifteen minutes with the two coffees, putting one down on Bucky’s desk before moving to the other side of the room to start up the holograms so he can start designing. “I’m not sure I got the order completely right, because Pepper’s also challenging me to try and not use Jarvis while I’m out of the tower. But, you should give me credit for trying, okay?”

Bucky takes a sip of the coffee. It’s not terrible, but it is definitely missing something from his usual order. “Thanks, Tony,” he says anyway, trying not to hurt their fragile relationship. He finishes the design for the gun and leaves it in Tony’s possession to look over it and maybe build it if he feels like it, taking the coffee with him. 

“You’re actually drinking the coffee someone else got you for once?” Steve asks once Bucky finds him in the gym.

Bucky shrugs. “It was close, and it was an honest try. I also don’t want to ruin the friendship I’ve started to build with Tony, after everything I’ve done. So, yes, I’m drinking it. Keep questioning me like that and you’ll be wearing it.”

Steve puts his hands up in surrender and goes back to attacking the punching bag.  
~~~  
Sam walks in on Bucky in the gym climbing up some ropes early one morning. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” Sam asks, and Bucky nods, dropping down to the ground to talk with Sam. 

“Had a nightmare early in the night and didn’t want to go back to sleep.”

Sam looks around and says, “You want something to drink?”

Bucky gives a vague nod and says, “Some coffee would be nice.” He again says his long order and starts to climb the rock wall as Sam leaves. 

Sam comes back only a few minutes later, and Bucky, confused, drops back to the floor again.

“I never said I was getting you coffee,” Sam says, handing Bucky a water bottle as he takes a sip from a mug. “You’re working out, you need water.”

Bucky glares at him as he takes the bottle. “What’s in your mug?”

Sam shrugs. “Coffee. I got it from upstairs, Tony finally fixed the machine.”

Bucky crosses his arms. “So you can get yourself coffee, but not me.”

“Hey, if you wanted that ridiculous order, I would have had to actually leave the tower, and I’m not up for that.” He walks back toward the elevator. “You want coffee, go get it yourself.”

Steve comes into the gym later, after Jarvis told him that’s where he would find Bucky. “You had coffee yet this morning, Buck?”

Bucky stops what he was doing to come over to Steve. He glares at the half-empty water bottle on the bench. “Not yet.”

Steve is confused but doesn’t say anything, deciding it’s best not to get into it. “Okay, well if you want I just brewed a fresh pot upstairs. Tony got the machine to work again.” 

Bucky nods, and he follows Steve upstairs to actually get some coffee.  
~~~  
“I’m going out for coffee. Don’t even bother giving me your order, I’ve heard how awful it is. I’m offering you black or nothing.”

“Well good morning to you too, Natasha,” Bucky says from the couch as he’s channel surfing. 

“Do you want the coffee or not?” says Natasha, a bored look on her face. 

Bucky sighs. “Sure. It’s better than nothing.”

Steve comes and joins Bucky on the couch to watch something together before Natasha gets back.

“Here,” Natasha says from next to the couch when she comes back, pulling a cup out of the carton and offering it to Bucky. He takes it, and then she offers one to Steve, leaving after he takes it.

Bucky raises an eyebrow. “Tea?” he asks as a question, and Steve takes a sip before nodding.

“Let me guess, she didn’t get your normal order?”

Bucky stares at him flatly. “I was told black or nothing. So, no. It’s black.” He takes a sip and scrunches his nose, but continues to drink it. Steve laughs at his face and kisses his forehead before turning back to the T.V.  
~~~  
Bucky groans and rolls over in the bed sheets, the sound of a door closing somewhere on the floor waking him up. He looks at the clock and buries his face back in the pillow. The bedroom door opens.

“Good morning, sleepy-head,” says Steve, walking over to the bed. He was already out for a run this morning. “I brought you something.”

Bucky blearily looks up at Steve from the pillow and sees a coffee in his hand. He sits up and takes it from Steve.

“One Caramel nut mocha latte with an extra shot of vanilla, two shots of espresso, and extra foam,” Steve says with a smirk as Bucky takes a sip.

Bucky smiles sleepily at Steve and says, “Thanks.”

Steve smiles back and kisses Bucky’s forehead. “Get ready, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”

Bucky groans and takes another sip of his coffee as Steve leaves, trying to savor it before he has to start his day.


	26. The Warehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Lana - Character A: I don't know if I want to kiss you or throw you off a bridge. Character B: can I choose? (Probably getting together, but could work as established relationship?) (your choice on who says which!)
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you enjoy!

It was a standard mission – the villain's base was found and needed to be taken out. Unfortunately, most of the Avengers were incapable of making it. Thor wasn’t on Earth and Clint was with his family, so nothing unusual there. But Pepper took Tony and Bruce halfway around the world for a science conference, and there was no way they could make it back in time. 

That left only Natasha, Steve, and Bucky to do the mission. Now that Bucky’s been cleared to join in, he’s been itching to get out whenever he can. Steve’s been careful around him ever since they got him back, something almost everyone has accounted to the torture Bucky went through. Everyone except Natasha.

Steve’s phone dings as they are on the quinjet over, and he pulls it off of the seat next to him. 

_When are you going to tell him?_ it reads, and Steve glares at Natasha in the pilot seat. He doesn’t have to ask to know what she means; she confronted him about it already. How is he supposed to tell his best friend he’s in love with him and has been for years?

Natasha lands the quinjet and Steve stands, leaning over to pick up his shield. He is stopped by a hand on his arm, so he turns his head to see Bucky staring at him intently. 

“Stick to the plan, Steve,” he says gruffly. “Don’t go off doing something dangerous by yourself. 

Steve nods and Bucky lets go of his arm.

The three of them leave the quinjet and silently take out the patrols outside, trying not to sound the alarm. Everything’s going to plan, and they sneak inside with no problems. That’s when everything falls apart. 

Steve rushes at the people inside first, being the distraction so they don’t see Bucky or Natasha right away. As he fights, he notices the shipping crates scattered in the warehouse, with stronger chains on them than needed for the average shipment. Even though there are still people shooting at him, he runs over to the closest one and rips the door open. 

“Steve,” Bucky whispers through the comms. “Stick to the plan!”

Steve takes in the sight of all the women cowering on the floor in chains as he says, “I can’t. They’re human traffickers; they have people chained up in all of these crates.”

Bucky swears, and a shot rings out in the warehouse, the man sneaking up on Steve dropping to the ground now that Bucky found his sniping position in the rafters. “Fight first, rescue later!” he hisses as he shoots more of the attacking men. 

Steve turns away from the crate and gets back into the fight, making his way over to another crate and ripping that door off as well. He sees Natasha along the edge of the warehouse, stealthily taking out the men around the edge.

This container is full of children this time, most of them crying.

“Steve! Bad guys!” Bucky yells, and Steve barely gets his shield up in time before the man could punch him. Steve quickly knocks him out, and, seeing the men are very sparse at the moment, decides Bucky and Natasha can handle the rest of them, running off to another crate on the other side of the room, all by itself. 

He grabs the door and pulls, and suddenly the crate explodes, sending Steve flying across the warehouse and into an office wall, which crumbles on top of him. He blinks dazedly and shakes his head, eliciting more debris to fall around him. He doesn’t register Bucky yelling in the comms until he is hearing double, and the rubble is shifting around him. Something latches onto his arm and pulls him out, and he falls onto his hands and knees, gasping for air.

“I told you to wait!” Bucky says from above Steve, and he realizes he was hearing double because he still heard Bucky in his earpiece too. He pulls it out and sets it aside, and then sits up, leaning against what’s left of the wall. 

He looks past Bucky to see the rest of the men have been taken out, and Natasha is working on freeing the people trapped in the shipping crates. He then looks up at Bucky with a sheepish smile, breathing heavy, meeting Bucky’s glare. 

Bucky sighs, and, still glaring at Steve, says, “I don't know if I want to kiss you or throw you off a bridge.”

Steve answers immediately with, “Can I choose?” Bucky can’t hide his shock at what Steve said, but it’s out there now. Steve gulps and continues, “I’m just saying, you have technically already thrown me off of a bridge, so I think I’d prefer the latter.”

Bucky just continues to stare in shock, and Steve grows red with embarrassment. He opens his mouth to try and say something else to make it less awkward, but before he can, Bucky snaps out of his shock and grabs Steve’s hand, pulling him off of the ground and into a kiss in one movement. Steve is shocked, but it only takes him a second before he’s kissing back, adrenaline rushing through him.

Natasha clears her throat, and Steve jumps away from Bucky suddenly, turning to Natasha and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Congratulations, you idiots, you finally realized you both like each other. Now, if you don’t mind, everyone’s been freed, so I’d like to get going.” She spins around and walks to the exit, her heels clicking against the concrete.

Bucky smiles and leans in to kiss Steve again real quick before they follow Natasha out. He then grabs Steve’s hand and pulls him along, saying, “We really do need to talk about you sticking to the plan though. Don’t think kissing me will get you out of it.”

Steve smiles and kisses Bucky’s cheek. “I can still try.”


	27. Frozen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Anon - Steve has a flashback to crashing the Valkyrie/freezing. Bucky finds him in their apartment and brings him out of it. With lots of cuddles? :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Steve sits up in bed and rubs the sleep out of his eyes when the alarm goes off. He then presses the button to turn it off and turns to face the other side of the bed, only to find it empty. He notices a bright yellow square on the second pillow and picks it up.  
_  
Hey Stevie,_

_I had a nightmare, but it wasn’t bad enough that you woke up, and I also didn’t want to wake you up. I just – need to be alone for a while. I’m going for a walk; I don’t know when I’ll be back. I have my phone on me if there’s an emergency, but only for that. See you later._

_– Bucky_  
  
Steve sighs and puts the note on the table, getting out of bed and heading to the kitchen for some breakfast. He scrambles some eggs real quick to go with his cup of tea, eating them slowly as he wakes up. 

His phone buzzes when he finishes eating with a text from Tony. _Hey, something’s wack with the ac/heater, so the temp might be on the fritz today as I fix it. I’ll let you know when it’s working again._

Steve sighs and stands, taking his plate over to the sink to wash it. He notices a few other dirty dishes that are still laying around as well, so he cleans them and sets them to the side to dry. He turns around and looks out into the apartment and notices that it’s gotten quite dirty recently, with neither Steve or Bucky cleaning much because of some nasty nightmares. Steve sighs and decides to start cleaning once he gets dressed because he has nothing better to do. 

He starts in the kitchen to finish what he already started. He makes sure all the counters are wiped down, and then dries all the dishes he washed earlier to put them away where they are supposed to go. He pulls a broom out of the closet and sweeps the floor, and then decides it looks good enough. 

Moving onto the living room, Steve can feel that it’s getting hotter. It must be the broken vents. It doesn’t stop him from cleaning though, dusting the T.V. stand and all the bookshelves, wiping off the coffee table and the end tables, and then vacuuming. 

He found a pencil he lost a while ago under the couch, so he takes it with him as he goes to the next room, which is the study. Technically it had been the second bedroom before Tony found out Steve and Bucky were a thing, and then it was turned into the study that it is now, for it has the best lighting out of the two so it’s better for Steve to draw in. It doesn’t take him long in here, just dusting off the desk and some more bookshelves, and then vacuuming the floor. 

Next is the bathroom. It takes longer in there because Steve wants to be sure that everything is nice and clean. He scrubs the tiles in the shower, cleans the toilet bowl twice, and wipes the sink out. It's not like they let it get that dirty, Steve just knows that the bathroom is probably the dirtiest room bacteria wise, and doesn’t want anyone getting sick.

He uses his arm to wipe the sweat off of his forehead and pulls his phone out to see if Bucky has sent anything. There are no new notifications. He sighs and puts it back in his pocket before moving on to the bedroom.

He already made the bed earlier, so he starts by dusting the nightstands and dressers. Bucky left his clothes from yesterday strewn across the floor when he changed before bed, and Steve shakes his head before picking them up for Bucky. He opens the closet to put them in the hamper and then takes a hanger out to hang up a jacket. As soon as he places it, the vent above the closet kicks on, sending a powerful blast of frigid air into Steve’s face. 

Steve staggers backward in shock and runs into the bed, falling to the floor in front of it. 

“Steve!” he hears Peggy’s voice echo, and Steve squeezes his eyes shut to try and focus on present day. 

When he opens them again, all he can see is the ice, framed by the front window of the Valkerie. “I gotta put her in the water,” he says, his voice echoing. The ice gets closer and closer, and he closes his eyes just before it crashes.  
~~~  
Bucky comes into the apartment and can smell that Steve’s been cleaning. “Steve?” he calls out, growing worried when there isn’t a response. 

“Steve?” he calls again, starting to move through the apartment. When he reaches the bedroom, he sees the usually made bed in all sorts of disarray, most of the blankets in a shivering lump on the floor. He crouches next to it and peels back blanket after blanket until he uncovers Steves shivering form at its core.

“B-Bucky?” Steve says as he squints up at Bucky, curling further in on himself.

Bucky got the text about the faulty air conditioning too, so he doesn’t need to ask what happened. He knows Steve had crashed the plane in the ice and froze in it for years; he can identify a trigger. “Where are you?” Bucky asks softly, trying to see if Steve is still in a flashback or not.

“It’s – Avengers Tower, or whatever the hell Tony’s named it now,” Steve grumbles, and Bucky smiles. 

“Come here,” Bucky says, laying out on the floor next to Steve and pulling him close. Bucky adjusts the blankets and covers both of them back up in all the different layers, and Steve settles his head down on Bucky’s chest. They lay there together for a long time, Bucky not letting go of Steve until he stops shivering, and even then he still holds on for longer, wanting to make sure Steve is thoroughly warmed up.

Steve’s stomach growls and Bucky laughs softly, kissing the top of his head. “Come on, Steve, let’s get you some food. I know just what’ll warm you up.” He leaves Steve wrapped in a blanket on the couch before going to the kitchen and digging out an old chicken noodle soup recipe that is close to the way Sarah Rogers used to make it when she could afford to buy chicken. He also makes some hot chocolate to drink with it, and carries the steaming bowls and mugs back into the living room, moving the blanket off of Steve so he can sit under it with Steve and snuggle close to him again.

They eat their food as they watch a newer animated movie before falling asleep on the couch, wrapped up in each other’s arms.


	28. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've not posted in a while, finals were a thing and now the holidays are crazy. I wrote this Christmas fic real quick as I'm working on catching up with requests, hope you enjoy!

Steve wakes up in the morning to an empty bed. He freaks out for a second before remembering that Bucky had gotten up suddenly in the middle of the night and hadn't come back, reassuring Steve he would stay in the apartment. 

They had their own apartment in Brooklyn after Bucky felt uncomfortable around the other Avengers. He gets overwhelmed easily, and Steve was more than willing to do anything to help Bucky. 

As Steve sat up, he remembered that today is Christmas. Steve has always loved Christmas, but as they were walking around the streets, Bucky seemed to get uncomfortable around all of the decorations and people, so Steve decided not to decorate this year. He still got Bucky a present, but he didn't wrap it and wasn't expecting anything in return. As he stretches, the smell of cookies wafts into the room. Confused, he gets up from the bed, running a hand through his hair to flatten it out as he walks to the bedroom door.

Steve opens it and immediately stops to stare, his mouth hanging open. The apartment is completely covered in different colors – gold tinsel hangs around the top of the walls, silver lights twinkling inside them. Candy canes litter the tables, surrounding miniature santas and elves. The electric fireplace has a garland running above it, little snowmen holding up the two stockings. By the window is a giant christmas tree, almost too tall for the apartment. Strings of popcorn wrap their way around to the top, and the white lights reflect off of the multi colored ornaments littering the tree. On top, a glittering gold star stands tall.

As Steve scans the room in shock, his eyes land on Bucky – in an apron, pulling cookies out of the oven, wearing reindeer antlers. He sets them down and turns to smile at Steve as he walks over. 

“Merry Christmas,” he says as he pulls Steve in, giving him a kiss.

Steve is still too shocked to say anything, making Bucky laugh. 

“You thought I'd forgotten how much you love Christmas?” Bucky says with a smile on his face.

“You did all of this… For me?” Steve asks, a look of wonder on his face.

Bucky kisses his nose and says, “Yes, you punk. It's Christmas, and I'll be damned if my being uncomfortable in public made you skip Christmas.” He looks up and says, “You are very predictable though.” 

Steve follows Bucky's gaze and sees that he hung mistletoe above the doorway of the bedroom. Steve laughs and pulls Bucky in, capturing his lips with his.

Bucky breaks the kiss to say, “Now that you're up, I'm gonna go make pancakes. There are clothes waiting for you on the chair next to the bed.” He turns away and walks back to the kitchen.

Steve spots some wrapping paper and grabs it before walking back into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He digs through the closet until he finds the box that is Bucky's gift and quickly wraps it before he turns to the chair.

A santa hat is sitting on top of the pile and Steve chuckles, picking it up to see what else is there. A pair of slippers that look like reindeer, a pair of Steve's jeans, and a white sweater. When Steve opens the sweater, he sees written on it, "Up to snow good." He shakes his head and puts everything on, then takes his present for Bucky out to put under the tree. 

He notices there are a lot of presents under it, and upon further inspection, it's what Steve bought the other Avengers for Christmas.

Bucky sets two stacks of pancakes on the table and Steve walks over to him, shaking his head. “You didn't have to do all of this.”

“You're right, I wouldn't have if you'd stop trying to keep me in my comfort zone and not push me out every once in a while to get used to things again,” Bucky says in a joking tone.

Steve sits down and drops his head. “You're right, I'm sorry.” He looks up when Bucky places his hand on top of Steve's. 

“Hey, it's alright. I didn't mean for you to get upset over that.” Bucky kisses Steve's forehead and then sits down with his pancakes. “Let's hurry up and eat, we've got a lot to do today.”

“We do?” Steve says through a mouthful of pancakes, but Bucky doesn't say anything else, instead focusing on eating.

When they finish, Bucky takes the plates and washes them, handing them to Steve to dry them and put them away.

“Grab the hams out of the fridge, would you?”

“Hams, plural?” Steve says, opening the fridge to see two hams sitting on the bottom shelf. “How the hell did you hide these from me?”

“You're blind to half the things right in front of you,” Bucky says, pulling dishes out of the cabinet. 

“Also, why do we need two? I know we both have a large appetite, but unless we were only eating the ham, I don't see how we will need more than one.”

Bucky sighs. “Steve, you're such an idiot sometimes, you know that?”

Steve wants to question Bucky but doesn't get to when the doorbell rings. Since Bucky is in the middle of food prep, Steve goes to open the door. 

“Hey Steve,” Natasha says when Steve opens the door. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas!” Clint yells from behind her.

Steve dumbly says, “Uhh, Merry Christmas?” as he stands to the side to let them in. Clint goes for the tree to put down the presents as Natasha brings her dish over to Bucky. 

Steve closes the door and wanders over to Bucky, saying, “Oh, it was the presents under the tree, wasn't it.”

“Bingo,” Bucky says, flicking Steve on the nose. “Everyone's gonna be here at some point.”

Steves smile is big, happy that Bucky is willing to push out of his comfort zone to invite everyone over. Before he can say that though, Bucky hits him with a spatula, making Steve jump out of his thoughts.

“Go sit with Clint over on the couches, the two of you aren't allowed in here.”

“Why?” Steve says, mocking offense.

“Because we need to have food for dinner, and if the two of you stay here, there won't be any food left.”

Steve puts his hands up in surrender and laughs, backing out of the kitchen to join Clint. The rest of the Avengers start to filter in, all of them wearing various ugly sweaters and bringing presents to put under the tree. Bruce and Natasha help Bucky in the kitchen, but everyone else is kicked out to the living room. Voices fill the air as everyone talks to each other, and there's a permanent smile on Steve's face. Once the cooking is done and Bucky finally takes his apron off, Steve can't stop laughing at it.

“What?” Bucky asks, the smile on his face betraying that he already knows what Steve is laughing about. The sweater says, “I'm Claus-trophobic” with a santa hat above the letters. Steve's glad that Bucky has enough in him to make a joke about himself – Bucky really is claustrophobic after the cryo chambers.

Dinner goes well, Sam and Bucky calling a truce for the day because it's Christmas. Thor nearly knocks the table over telling a story, but everyone's having a good time.

Once dinner is over, it's onto the presents. Among others, Steve gets a medkit to hold in his utility belt from Clint, and a framed picture of him and Bucky kissing after a long time apart from Bruce. His favorite gift comes from Bucky though. It's a new set of pencils – Bucky had bought him a notebook for one Christmas before the war and said the next time he had enough money he'd buy new pencils to go with it. Steve was nearly in tears, hugging Bucky hard after that.

Bucky gets a lot of stress relief items, but he gets a nice new gun holster from Natasha. He saves Steve's gift for last, amazed at the pair of custom made knives that he bought. The metal won't be detected by a sensor, and they're perfectly balanced for an enhanced super soldier. Bucky hugs him again, along with a small kiss on his lips.

Everyone else opens their presents too and Tony breaks out the wine, and the party starts to die down, everyone growing tired after all the good food and the presents.

Bruce leaves first, thanking everyone for everything before leaving. Tony is next, claiming he needs to finish a blueprint before tomorrow. Thor says he is going to go share his adventures with his family on Asgard, but luckily doesn't call the bifrost in the middle of the apartment. Clint and Natasha leave last, taking some of the leftovers so that Clint has some food.

With just the two of them left, Steve snuggles into Bucky's side as they sit in front of the fireplace. “Thank you,” he whispers, and Bucky smiles.

“Anything for my best guy.” Bucky runs his hand through Steve's hair, and they enjoy the rest of the evening together. Steve's never had a better Christmas.


	29. Never Have I Ever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Moonlight 236: Avenger never have I ever leads to the team finding out about steve and buckys relationship and maybe helped to show that steve wasn't innocent at all. 
> 
> Thanks for the request! I missed when you asked for them finding out about the relationship because of them playing never have I ever, so they all know already. Sorry about that!
> 
> CW: Sex mention ig, but its not detailed or anything, it's never have I ever just think about what that would entail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uhh sorry that updates have been kinda spaced out lately, winter break has had me with multiple writing blocks and it's been tough to break them. In order to break them, I had to restrain myself a little. I was forcing myself to try and write things I just didn't know what to do for. So I've discarded a handful of requests that I didn't know what to write for, and it's helped a lot. I still have them in my masterlist if I ever want to try and attempt them again, but if your request doesn't show up after a while of me posting, then it might have been thrown in the discard pile. Sorry if it does, but I can't please everyone! If you want to keep up to date on my latest writers block or just talk to me, come find me on [tumblr](https://pearlll09.tumblr.com/). I'd love to talk to you guys, I don't bite :)

Who’s up for some party games?” Tony asks the crowd of Avengers who are cleaning up now that the last party guest has left. 

“I’m not playing any betting games,” Clint says as he throws some trash away. “I don’t have the money to spare if Steve’s just gonna take it all.”

Steve smiles sheepishly from across the room as he wipes off the table.

“Don’t be silly,” Tony says as he walks over to the bar. “There are plenty of games we could do without bets.”

“Do people still play spin the bottle?” Bucky asks as he wraps the leftover food up.

Sam makes a face. “Yes, we do. But I’m not playing that game when your ugly mug is a possibility.”

Tony shakes his head and pulls out eight shot glasses. “I was thinking some never have I ever. Bruce, help me pick drinks?”

The Avengers start to finish up what they are cleaning and congregate on the couches. 

“What is this ‘never have I ever’?” Thor asks since he doesn’t know much about Midgardian party games. 

Natasha answers with, “It’s a drinking game. You say a statement that you have never done before, and if anyone has done it, you take a drink.”

“I do love drinking games,” Thor says, sitting down with the rest of the group.

Tony and Bruce bring the glasses and alcohol over, making sure everyone gets a glass. As everyone preemptively fills their glass, Tony says, “No singling anyone out, okay? Purposely, at least. So like, I can’t say never have I ever turned into an enormous green rage monster.”

“Thanks,” Bruce says, rolling his eyes. “Who wants to start?”

“I will,” Natasha says. “Never have I ever been in the military.”

Sam, Steve, Bucky, and Thor all drink for that one. 

“Starting us off easy, I see,” says Bruce. “Let’s go clockwise. So, Clint?”

He thinks about it and says, “Never have I ever been to Australia.”

Bucky, Tony, Natasha, and Thor take a drink.

“Thor, you’ve been to Australia?” Steve asks. 

“What is Australia?” Thor asks, confused.

“I don’t think he really understands the game. It’s okay. The rest of you, stories?” asks Bruce, intrigued.

“Mission,” both Natasha and Bucky say at the same time, and no one asks for more information.

“I was there for a show,” Tony says. “Took Pepper to the opera house for an anniversary gift.”

“You’re all lame,” Sam says, and, being next, says, “Never have I ever kissed someone of the same gender.”

Steve, Bucky, Tony, Natasha, and Thor take a drink. Everyone’s realized Thor’s just going to take a drink every round now, so they don’t ask him for a story.

“Well obviously you got Steve and Bucky on that,” Clint says, “But Tony? Nat?”

“Mission,” Natasha simply says again.

Tony shrugs. “My college years were wild, man.”

Steve is next, and he wants to make Bruce drink, since he hasn’t yet, so he goes simple. “Never have I ever been a scientist.”

Tony, Bruce, and Thor take a drink. That question doesn’t require any explanations, so Bucky continues. 

“Never have I ever worn a dress,” Bucky says. 

Steve is about to tell Bucky off for singling Natasha out, but he stops when Natasha and Thor aren’t the only ones to take a drink. Tony and Clint do too.

“I told you college was wild,” Tony says as he spreads his arms out.

“I was in the circus,” Clint says. “I doubt that’s the weirdest thing I’ve had to do.”

Thor is next, proclaiming, “Never, have I ever, transformed myself into a snake and stabbed my brother.”

Everyone looks at Thor blankly, and no one takes a drink.

“Good,” says Thor, narrowing his eyes, “That means none of you can be Loki in disguise.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “You guys are all playing it safe and pg. We’re all adults here, let’s get into dirty questions. That’s the whole point of an adult drinking game.” He waggles his eyebrows. “Let’s start simple. Never have I ever had sex with someone of the same gender.”

Natasha, Steve, Bucky, and Thor take a drink. 

“Let me guess, mission?” Sam says towards Natasha, and she nods. The two of them already knew about Steve and Bucky, so they weren’t staring at them in shock over this revelation.

Steve, who is growing red, clears his throat and says, “Bruce?”

Bruce blinks before saying, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea. Let’s get it back into the safe zone. Never have I ever had to wear spandex.”

Steve, Natasha, Tony, Clint, and Thor take a drink. It’s pretty obvious because of their costumes, so the game continues.

The rounds go by with everyone taking more and more drinks, progressively heading back in the sex direction as everyone gets drunk. Every chance Tony gets, he has a sex question, and Clint has started jumping on it too. Every single question they ask, Steve and Bucky drink. Steve is as red as a tomato now, barely able to stand sitting in the game anymore.

“Never have I ever had sex when there was a chance I could have been caught,” Clint says, and Steve stands abruptly. 

“This was fun, but I think I should be heading to bed now,” Steve says, trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible.

“Nuh uh uh,” says Tony, “Not until you’ve answered the question.”

Steve picks his glass up and takes it over to the bar, pausing before he sets it down. He quickly takes the shot, sets the glass down, and walks as fast as he can out of the room.

Bucky laughs as he watches him and then takes his own drink. “There was always a chance the Howlies would find us,” he states and then sets his glass back down on the table as he stands. “I should go check on him; he seemed pretty embarrassed.”

Tony nods, wide-eyed. “I think I’ve learned more than I ever needed about the two of you tonight. Remind me next time I’m half drunk and suggest a party game that never have I ever and truth or dare probably aren’t the best to do, or we might learn things we wish we didn’t know.”

Bucky nods and steps out of the room, following out after Steve.

Clint watches him leave and says, “You don’t think they’re gonna –” He’s cut off by Natasha hitting him.

“Let’s stop there. Whatever they do or don’t do is their business. If I find out that you were in the vents near their room, I will hurt you.” She turns to look at Tony. “Same goes for you. It’s called privacy. No cameras on in their room.”

Tony holds his hands up and says, “Jarvis, delete any footage from their room for tonight.” 

“Yes, sir.”

Bruce sets his glass down and says, “Okay, games over. Let’s get some sleep; I’m sure we’ll all be hungover tomorrow.”


	30. Modern Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by ghoulwidow: I don't know if you're a twenty one pilots fan or if you've ever listened to them, but I have had this idea of them being in their apartment and then My Blood by TØP starts playing and when they listen to the lyrics they start kinda happy crying and hugging or whatever bc they will literally do anything for each other for so long but I'm not good at writing lol. Also, a similar one but of them dancing to "Ghost of You" by 5 Seconds of Summer uwu
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you don't mind that I combined the two :) Also, I've never written a songfic so this is probably absolute garbage, but I suggest listening to the songs before you read so you understand. It also kind of turned into a big meme? Anyway, hope you enjoy!

“Hey, Steve?” Bucky calls out into the apartment, trying to find him.

“Is everything okay, Buck?” Steve asks, appearing in the doorway of the living room. 

Bucky nods. “Yeah, it’s just – Peter sent me something, and I think we might want to look at it together if you’re not busy.”

Steve shakes his head and says, “I was just sketching, it can wait.” He sits down on the couch next to Bucky. “Okay, what is it?”

Bucky holds his phone in between them so they can both read the message.

_Hey Mr. Bucky! I figured you and Mr. Steve are still trying to catch up on a lot of things you’ve both missed, so I’ve compiled this playlist for you to listen to. Mr. Stark said you should have the app on your phone to play it, so just follow the link!_

“Playlist?” Steve questions.

“I’ve heard Peter use the term before. It’s a list you can make of different songs, and then they will play if you want them to.” Bucky follows the link, and it opens up in a different app. “Yep, here it is.” 

He shows the screen to Steve, and at the top, it reads, _Playlist to get old folk into modern music._

“Wanna give it a try? I can come on in with you as you sketch and see what Peter has prepared for us.”

Steve shrugs. “Why not? The kid put effort into making it for us; it’d be rude of us not to use it at least once. You have a speaker for it, right?”

“Yeah, somewhere. I’ll go find it.”

They meet back up in the study, Steve already back to sketching. Bucky sits down in his plush chair by the bookshelves and connects the speaker to his phone, starting the playlist. The first song that comes on is ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ by Billy Joel. Steve starts to laugh.

“What's up?” Bucky asks, tapping his foot to the beat. “It sounds like a pretty good song.”

“It is pretty good. It’s just that Tony played it for a week after the Chitauri whenever I was in the room.”

Bucky laughs too, but he makes sure to listen to the song because if Peter put it in the list, he obviously thinks they should listen to it. The next song to come on is ‘Crazy In Love’ by Beyonce.

“Oh my God, it’s Beyonce!” Bucky says, gaining a strange look from Steve. “Stephen listens to it,” Bucky says as he shrugs. 

“Stephen? You mean Dr. Strange? When have you been out with him?”

“I’ve been to the sanctum a few times while you’re out,” Bucky says, and then, less dignified, “I like it when he does the boom boom woosh.” 

“The boom boom – you mean you’ve been going down to bug him just so you can see him do magic?” Steve asks, pinching the skin between his eyebrows. 

“It’s cool!” Bucky defends, “Besides, he hasn’t asked me yet to stop going, so I’m sure he doesn’t mind.”

Steve rolls his eyes and goes back to his sketch as Bucky restarts the song since they had been talking through most of it. He can’t help but agree that it is kind of catchy, and he finds himself tapping his foot along to it by the end.

“Have you heard this one?” Steve asks as the next song starts.

“Nope,” Bucky says, picking up his phone. “It says its ‘My Blood’ by Twenty-One Pilots.”

Steve sets his pencil down as he listens to the lyrics, turning in the chair to look at Bucky. He finds that Bucky has a similar expression to what Steve feels he has.

“This is, uh …” Bucky starts, but he can’t find the words to what he wants to say. Steve nods slowly, understanding what Bucky wants to say.

The song puts them in a sort of trance, and they find themselves being pulled to each other like magnets. By the middle of the song, they’re standing in the middle of the room, hugging, Steve’s arms wrapped around Bucky and his chin resting on the top of his head. Bucky starts silently crying against Steve’s chest, and Steve can’t help a few tears of his own.

Steve rubs Bucky’s back soothingly, whispering, “I know, Buck, I know.”   
_You don't need to run, Stay with me, no, you don't need to run, Stay with me, my blood_

The song ends, and the next one begins, but Steve and Bucky don’t hear it, the last lines of the song still running in their heads.

Steve finally pulls away and kisses Bucky before saying, “Okay, maybe that’s enough new music for today.”

Bucky sniffs and wipes at his eyes, then nods and turns the music off. “Steve?” he says when it’s quiet again.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Steve smiles. “I love you too, Buck.”  
~~~  
Bucky had another bad nightmare. This time though, he just wanted to be alone. So Steve let him be alone, leaving the apartment for a while to go for a really early morning run. By the time he gets back, the sun is finally starting to rise, and he can hear music playing somewhere in the apartment.

He finds Bucky in the living room with Peter’s playlist going, standing in the middle of the room and staring out into space. The song ends just as Steve enters, and a new song starts. Steve glances at Bucky’s phone on the table next to him, and it says ‘Ghost of You’ by 5 Seconds of Summer. 

It doesn’t take long before Steve has found the beat, and, knowing Bucky has always liked to dance, he walks over to Bucky’s hand, pulling him close. This startles Bucky out of his thoughts, but he soon steps into the simple rhythmic swaying Steve started. By the time they make it to the middle of the first chorus, Bucky is starting to get more into it, and the swaying has become more of a waltz, a smile decorating Steve's face. 

As the song continues, they start to dance across the room, keeping the three-step pace as Steve swings Bucky over the couch. A smile starts to appear on Bucky's face by the end of the song, which gives Steve the motivation to continue dancing along with the next song. The beat is different, more upbeat, so they have to pause a little to get in step with the new song, but they get right back into it.

Bucky can't remember the last time he went dancing, but he can only remember having fun when he was out, so dancing with Steve helped ease the pain of the nightmare. Once the second song finishes, Bucky stops, tired out from lack of sleep. He kisses Steve, wordlessly thanking him for his help.

“That was a nice song,” Steve says once Bucky pulls away. 

Bucky picks his phone up to see what the song was. “It says it was ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley.”

“Huh. Remind me to tell Peter next time we see him that that was a good song.”

“All of them have,” Bucky says with a smile, “But alright. You want to listen to the next one? It's called 'Fireflies’ by Owl City.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise my writing isn't usually this cringy (:


	31. Tracking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by emeraldsage85: Bucky and Steve are in a relationship after Bucky regains some of his memories. For some reason Bucky thinks he’s not good enough for Steve and leaves. Steve tracks him down and makes him see that he’s being an idiot and that they’d be much happier together.
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you like it!

Steve woke up to an empty bed. That was nothing unusual these days, ever since he got Bucky back. There were frequent nightmares; Steve usually rushing into Bucky's bedroom to wake him up that end up with Steve sleeping next to him to help him go back to sleep. Then, on one of Bucky's good days, he timidly confessed his feelings for Steve. Steve was ecstatic and heartbroken at the same time – as he swept Bucky into a kiss now that he knows his love is reciprocated, all he could think about is how Bucky was never shy around the ladies before.

Something about this morning feels different to Steve though, and he's not sure why. Bucky's been distant lately, even more so than usual. He gets up and out of bed and does a quick search of the apartment, not finding Bucky.

He pulls a box of pop tarts out of the cabinet to eat real quick even as he calls Natasha.

“Morning,” she answers, sounding like she's been up for a while. 

“Is Bucky with you?” Steve asks, knowing sometimes he'd go to Natasha about the nightmare instead of Steve, which only hurt a little. 

“Nope,” Natasha answers, popping the p. “You sure he's not there?”

“Already did a sweep of the apartment,” Steve answers, shoveling the pop tarts in his mouth.

“Maybe he's just out on a walk then. Give him some time, don't worry.”

Steve presses his lips together in a frown but says, “Okay, thanks. Bye.” He hangs up and sets the phone back on the table, sighing.

Steve tries to do something normal as he waits to see when Bucky will get back, but he finds himself not able to focus on one thing for a long time. He turns the TV on and watches half a show before having to get up and move around. He pulls his sketchbook out but only manages to make a few lines before giving up. Eventually, he settles on hardcore cleaning, scrubbing down anything and everything to try and make him forget about Bucky missing.

But nothing works. By noon, he's managed to scrub the entirety of the floor that isn't carpet, all the counters in the kitchen, and he even wiped down the windows. He was starting to freak out, so he finds his phone again and calls someone else.

“Cap,” Tony answers after the first ring.

“Tony, do you have a minute?”

“I have a lot of minutes, Bruce and I may have accidentally created a hazardous material, so now we aren't allowed in the lab until the feds come and take care of it.”

“Can you still access your cameras?”

“Yeah, Jarvis can pull a screen up for me. Why?”

Steve sighs, looking out the window to the busy street. “I've got a missing persons case, and was wondering if he's come up on any of the cameras you have.”

“How long has Robocop been missing?”

Steve does the math real quick, then says, “At least six hours.”

“You know it can't be a missing persons case until they've been gone for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, right?”

Steve huffs, “That's just a myth the TV shows have created, and this is Bucky we're talking about, who knows what could have happened.”

Tony sighs. “Okay, I'm pulling them up now.” A few seconds of tense silence and then Tony says, “You want the good news first, or the bad?”

“Tony,” Steve says, covering his face with his hand.

“Okay, okay. I see him leaving the apartment building early this morning.”

“And?” Steve prods.

“And your buddy is an ex-assassin, so he knows how to avoid cameras.”

Steve doesn't say anything, so Tony continues.

“I know how important he is to you, so I'm gonna send an expert over to help you track him down.”

“Thanks,” Steve breathes, the panic starting to set in. “I'm just – gonna go.” He hangs up abruptly and grips the edge of the table as he tries to keep his breathing under control. The table breaks under his hand, and Steve curses, running his hand over his face.

He busies himself looking through everything of Buckys to see if there's a hint of anything that could tell him where he went. He pulls his suit on too, strapping his shield on his back just in case.

When the knocking comes at the front door, Steve jumps up and over to the door quickly, unlocking it and opening it to see Clint smiling at him, a quiver and his bow strapped to his back.

“Hey Steve,” Clint says.

Steve furrows his brow, saying, “What are you doing here?”

“Tony sent me over, said you needed help tracking down a certain someone,” he says with a wink, pushing past Steve into the apartment.

“You're the expert?” Steve asks incredulously, watching as Clint searches through the pile of items Steve had pulled out.

“Yep. Everyone forgets I used to be an assassin too. And I have some of the best eyes in the world; I already have an idea of where he is from the cameras Tony showed me.”

Steve's face lights up. “Really?”

Clint stands and smirks. “You ready for a road trip?”

Steve quickly finds out that he should never let Clint drive again. There was a car waiting outside for them, and Clint nearly crashed it in three different intersections just getting out of the city. Then, he drives at twenty-five miles per hour over the speed limit, nearly crashing into a few other cars as he weaves back and forth between lanes.

“Where are we going?” Steve says, holding onto whatever he can to stay stable. He already broke the handle above the door and the door handle, so now he's got one hand on Clint's chair and one on the dash in front of him.

“He was quick, and with as long as he's had, he made it pretty far.”

“That does… not help whatsoever, Clint.”

“Pennsylvania.”

“Pennsylvania? Why the hell would he go there?” Steve says, putting holes in the back of Clint’s headrest as Clint swerves around another car.

“I can track people; I'm not a psychiatrist, I can't tell you that.”

Steve spends the rest of the frightful car trip pondering why Bucky would have left, and why he went to Pennsylvania. Eventually, the car starts to slow, and Steve looks around, seeing nothing but corn.

“This can’t possibly be where Bucky is, there’s nothing around here,” Steve says, looking over at Clint.

“Well, that’s where my tracking fails a little. Around here, not many people use electronics, so he hasn’t been seen in any pictures, or come up in any security camera footage because they don’t exist. The best I can do is say he’s somewhere within a twelve-mile radius from where we are now.”

“And if he moved?” Steve asks, watching the rapidly decreasing sunlight.

“I have alerts being sent to my phone if anything else can possibly ID him, and haven’t gotten anything since we left. So, I guess it’s time to check the barns for Barnes.” Clint snickers at his own joke as he gets out of the car.

Steve follows suit, glad the serum has enhanced his eyesight so that it’s not entirely pitch black out for him. He has no clue how Clint can see anything though until he notices Clint put on glasses. They must be helping him see in the dark.

They search together through the many farms, being careful not to wake up any of the landowners. The last thing they need is a PR nightmare trying to explain why they were sneaking around in cornfields late at night.

Finally, they come up to an abandoned looking barn that Steve thinks looks oddly familiar. “This is the one,” he whispers to Clint.

“How do you know?”

“Gut feeling. Stay here, let me go in and talk to him, okay?”

Clint nods, letting Steve creep slowly towards the barn. The door is still partially open, so Steve eases it open a little more so that he can easily slip through. Once he’s inside the barn is when he remembers why it looks familiar – during the war, him and the rest of the Commandos, including Bucky, had bunkered down in a very similar barn.

Steve looks around inside and thinks the inside is similar to the other one too, decorated differently but the loft is in the same spot. He remembers exactly where everyone had been when they stayed there, so he carefully and quietly walks over to where he and Bucky had settled in for the night. Sure enough, right there was Bucky, fast asleep in a pile of hay.

Steve kneels down next to him, hesitating before gently placing his hand on his shoulder to wake him up. Bucky immediately lurches awake, pressing a knife Steve didn’t even notice Bucky holding against his throat.

Bucky takes in who he’s looking at for a second before dropping the knife into Steve’s lap, shuffling backwards and away from Steve, eyes wide.

“How did you find me?” Bucky asks slowly, gulping.

“I really don’t know. Clint did all the hard work tracking you down, ask him about his sorcery.” Steve gestures to the barn doors but then brings his focus back on Bucky. “Why did you leave?” he asks softly.

“I had to,” replies Bucky, backing up more so he can sit against the wall.

Steve shakes his head. “No, you didn’t, Buck.”

“Yes, I did. You don’t understand.” Bucky gulps and looks away from Steve. “It’s not safe for me to be around you. Hell, I nearly just killed you now.”

Steve moves closer. “But you didn’t.” That gets Bucky to look at him again, and Steve smiles softly. “Look, Buck, I know what they did to you. I know that’s not gonna disappear all in one night if it ever does. But I know the risks. I know what I’m getting myself into. I’m with you ‘till the end of the line, and don’t you forget it.”

Bucky chuckles softly and looks away again. “Using my own words against me.”

Steve shrugs. “What else can I say? They sum it up pretty perfectly.” He moves into Bucky’s space again and rests his hand on top of Bucky’s. “I know you think it’s bad right now, but we’ll pull through together.”

Bucky turns to look at Steve again and slowly moves in, pressing a kiss against Steve’s soft lips. “Okay punk, you’ve convinced me.” He sighs and says, “Time to go home, then?”

Steve smiles and stands, helping Bucky up. “Home is where ever you are, pal.”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Alright, I’m done with the sap outta you. We got a ride home?”

Steve blanches and says, “Yeah, we’ve got a car. Say, you don’t happen to know how to drive, do you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I didn't know the waiting 24-48 hours to report a missing person was a thing made up for tv! I found out when googling how long it actually was and had to change the rest of what I had planned accordingly lol


	32. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Tyrala1: Stucky having the most heartwrenching loving reunion with Steve breaking down and them not being able to let eachother go for a long time
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you like it!

The alarm clock blares loudly in the morning, echoing in the almost empty room. Steve shakes his head to clear his eyes as he reaches over to turn it off, squinting. He turns around to look out the window and sees the sun is only just beginning to rise.

He sighs and pushes himself out of bed, forcing himself to go through his morning routine before checking his phone to see if Sam or Natasha have found anything on Bucky. Usually, he’s checking up with them every five minutes, until Natasha yelled at him yesterday for it. He’s trying his best.

After scarfing down his breakfast, he nearly runs back into the bedroom to scroll through his phone. Nothing came up in his google alerts about a man with a metal arm, so at least Bucky’s been staying out of trouble. Natasha is looking into everything she can out of the information dumped onto the internet when they took down Hydra. Sam said he’ll be over at a reasonable morning hour to help Steve look through more files. Steve sighs and runs a hand down his face, tossing the phone to the side before flopping back onto the bed.

He should have known tracking Bucky down was going to be hard, the man had been a ghost story for years, after all. But Steve didn’t understand why they had to at all. He didn’t know why Bucky left him sitting there on the river bank when he saved Steve. Why he had to leave him alone, right after he saw Bucky remembering again. Steve just wants his boyfriend back – they never told anyone back in the day, and Steve thought he lost Bucky for good, but now, in the future, Steve is here, everything is legal, but Bucky is still missing from the equation.

Steve sighs and sits up again, opening his phone to make sure he has the right time for when Sam is coming over. Then he pulls everything he has on Bucky at the moment and takes it into his dining room, spreading it out across the table. There’s a corkboard on wheels that Steve bought just for this, and he walks over to study it. Everything they have pinned up is all of the times someone or something has spotted Bucky since the helicarriers, along with whatever Hydra base Steve had found and taken out when he got there, no Bucky to be seen. Sam keeps on saying it’s a good sign he’s directing them towards the bases, but Steve just shakes his head and continues the search. He doesn’t understand. No one does. 

When Sam finally comes to meet Steve, it’s with news.

“Another spotting,” he says quickly, out of breath from running over. “Hurry up, get dressed!”

Steve sprints across the room to his bedroom, pulling his uniform on haphazardly and throwing his shield onto his back, running back to Sam as he finishes fastening the suit together. Sam looks at him and nods, and they head out together. Tony was nice enough to let Steve borrow a quinjet for all of his chasing Bucky activities, so Sam starts the engines and sets their course before finally filling Steve in.

“This one was a security camera, didn’t even come up in google alerts. I forgot I asked Jarvis to run a program when he could to try and search the street cameras, and he told me he saw Bucky, near a Hyrda base that was just recently decoded by us off of the stuff dumped on the internet.”

“So it’s probably another bust,” Steve says gloomily, the adrenaline slowing as he realizes that Bucky’s probably just tipping them off again.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Sam says, and Steve perks up. “Jarvis alerted me about fifteen minutes ago when I was already on my way to you. And with the speed on this, we’ll be there in approximately another fifteen. Which means there’s a chance your boy is still going to be in the area.”

“Maybe,” Steve says, “But if we go after him first the Hydra cell is going to know we’re there, and they’ll clear out. We’ll have to go to them first, then.” He swallows and takes a deep breath to calm himself, knowing it’s the right decision even if his heart is telling him to go for Bucky. 

“Are you sure you’re up for that?” Sam asks, looking at him over his shoulder.

Steve forces a smile and says, “Yes.” That ends the conversation, so the rest of the ride is silent. Steve forms a plan in the silence and fills Sam in when they land. 

Creeping up to the facility they find that the patrols outside have all been knocked out – not a single one of them dead, but they haven’t been out for long. When they enter the facility, alarm lights are flashing in the hallways, confusing both Steve and Sam. 

They follow the trail of knocked out soldiers through the hallways until they hear shooting up ahead. At a crossroads and unsure what direction the shooting is coming from, they split up, Steve taking the left and Sam taking the right. 

Steve walks silently up the hall, and the sound gets louder. He thinks about going back for Sam, but that’ll just waste time, so he continues forward until he finds a door hanging off of its hinges. Steve creeps around the edge of the door to look inside and his heart starts racing when he sees Bucky there, trying to fight the Hyrda agents with his fists and objects in the room as they shoot at him from all angles. He’s momentarily frozen in place as he watches Bucky fight, but then he sees someone Bucky had knocked down sitting back up and aiming a gun with a shaky hand towards Bucky’s exposed back.

Steve runs into the room, shouting, “Watch out, Bucky!” as he jumps behind Bucky, holding the shield out. Steve sees the scene playing out in slow motion – he’s mid-jump and the shield in his hands hasn’t quite reached Bucky to protect him yet, but Bucky turns to look at Steve with wide eyes. The gun fires and the ringing sound of metal on metal means that the bullet hit his shield. Steve hits the floor, and everything goes back to normal speed. He quickly stands and throws his shield at someone across the room, Bucky having already taken care of the one who just shot him from the floor. Together, they quickly knock out the rest of the Hydra agents in the room.

“You alright Buck?” Steve asks, looking around the room to make sure everyone is down. 

“...Yeah,” Bucky responds in a quiet voice that sounds like he hasn’t used it in a while.

Steve’s eyes land on Bucky at the end of his sweep of the room and he breaks – they finally found Bucky, who was supposedly dead a very long time ago. His shield clatters to the ground after it falls out of his hand and he wraps his arms around Bucky, laying his head on his shoulder. Bucky is unresponsive for a few seconds, but then his arms come up around Steve in return.

“Are you crying, Stevie?” Bucky asks softly, and all Steve can do is nod against Bucky as he holds in his sobs. Bucky starts gently rubbing circles on Steve’s back and Steve can’t stand anymore, sinking down to the ground. Bucky follows with him, and the two sit together in the quiet room, Bucky comforting the crying Steve.

“I just – missed you so much,” Steve sniffles when the crying has subsided enough that he can talk. 

“I – I’m sorry I left you,” Bucky whispers, “I didn’t think it would do this much to you as I cleared out some Hydra bases.”

“Pl-Please don’t leave again,” Steve whimpers and Bucky turns his head to press a light kiss against Steve’s temple.

“I won’t. I promise. I’m done, all the bases I knew about have been cleared out now.” Bucky continues to rub Steve’s back soothingly, and he then notices that Steve is trying to copy his breathing patterns, an old habit from Steve’s skinnier days. Bucky makes his breathing deeper to help Steve calm down, and they stay latched onto each other in the silence of the room for a long time.

“Steve?” Sam’s voice echos through the hall when Steve’s almost calmed down again. 

Steve buries his head in the corner of Bucky’s shoulder and neck so Sam doesn’t see right away that he was crying, and Bucky moves one of his hands up to Steve’s head to pull him closer.

“Steve I didn’t find anything my way, where are you?” Sam notices the door and walks in, freezing as he takes in the sight in front of him. “Ahh…” he says, slowly backing out of the room. “I’ll, uh, leave you two alone for a bit. Call the feds to get someone down here to arrest everyone.” He leaves the room quickly, and Steve takes another deep breath, his exhale tickling Bucky’s neck.

“We should get going soon, Steve,” Bucky whispers again, “But only if you’re ready.”

“I’m almost ready,” Steve replies, lifting his head off of Bucky’s shoulder so he can see his blotchy red eyes. “I just have to do this first.” He leans in and captures Bucky’s lips with his own, and finally kissing Bucky again makes this reunion perfect in Steve’s eyes.


	33. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by AJ: I was thinking... de-aged Steve (or rather not de-aged, but maybe brought back as he was in the 30's) only trusting Bucky, please? And this helps Bucky too because while Bucky was a bit insecure about Captain America (who is so good and perfect and is a national icon, etc.) and avoided him, Bucky would never deny Steve anything even if he feels unworthy of his friendship... Just some hurt/comfort! Thank you! 
> 
> I've never read de-aged, so I didn't want to do the topic an injustice, but it still has Skinny! Steve. Hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two quick notes:  
> 1\. I would like to formally apologize to the two Avengers I always seem to forget about (Vision and Wanda) so they are both in this one, and I'll try to remember to use them more in the future!
> 
> 2\. This is the longest chapter I have EVER written, it's insane (4739 words according to Google), I might have gotten a little obsessed with it (:

“Hey Buck,” Steve says as he walks into the kitchen, just having gotten back from his morning run. “You want some food?”

Bucky doesn’t answer, keeping his eyes trained on the counter in front of him.

Steve nods and starts to make food anyway, knowing sometimes Bucky is lost in a memory or something and isn’t really here at the moment. He quickly scrambles some eggs and toasts some bread, splitting everything equally over two plates. He sets them down at the counter and pulls two glasses out of the cabinet, filling them both with orange juice. He turns back around to see that Bucky hasn’t touched his food. Suppressing a sigh, he places the drinks down and sits in his chair, making sure Bucky can see him as he takes a bite of eggs, then a bite of toast, and finally, a drink from the orange juice.

Bucky stares at him for a few seconds after before finally picking up his fork to start eating. He hasn’t fully trusted anyone since the Avengers took him in, not even Steve, so Steve has to constantly prove to Bucky that nothing has been poisoned. 

Tony’s voice interrupts their silent breakfast as he yells through the speaker, “Capsicle, we need you two up here, now!” 

Steve sighs and shovels down the rest of his food, and then Bucky follows him into the elevator to meet everyone. Bucky backs himself into the corner of the elevator, away from Steve. He keeps his head down, eyes on the floor, and when they meet with everyone else, he stands outside of the circle, listening but not putting any input into what is being discussed.

“Loki’s back at it again, terrorizing people over in town square,” Tony starts, now that everyone is there. “As usual, Thor doesn’t want us to kill him, because he is his brother after all.”

Thor gives a short nod from the other side of the circle.

Tony continues with, “So it’s all hands on deck for this fight. We need to keep the people safe and slow Loki down so Thor can slap the magical handcuffs on him. Cap?”

Steve nods, already forming a plan. “We’ll need to set up a perimeter, keep Loki from getting further into the city. Sam, Tony, Vision, that’s up to you, since you guys can fly it’ll be easiest to keep watch.” The three of them nod, so Steve continues. “Wanda, Natasha, you’re on civilian duty. Protect them and get them safely out of the area. Clint, Bucky, I want you two up high, help Nat and Wanda by keeping a lookout for civilians while also trying to subdue Loki.” He then looks to Thor. “Thor and I will try and keep Loki distracted so that he doesn’t cause any more damage before Thor can put the handcuffs on him. Everyone understand?”

There’s a muttered ‘yes’ that circles the group, and then everyone breaks to gather their things quickly. Luckily, Times Square isn’t very far away, so it doesn’t take long before everyone is in position. Loki is standing over a group of covering people, so Steve charges at him and runs into him, knocking him over and giving Natasha and Wanda room to start clearing out the civilians.

Loki stands with a glare and says, “So, you’ve finally arrived. I was wondering how long it was going to take for all of you to get here.” He looks around to see where everyone is. “Not quite the full crew though, huh? Didn’t think Dr. Banner was suitable for this fight? That’s too bad; I would have liked a rematch with the Hulk.” He smirks and then dodges out of the way as Mjolnir flies through the space he was just occupying. “Tsk tsk, brother, I thought you were smart enough to know that that wouldn’t work.”

Thor stands next to Steve, calling his hammer back. “It was worth a try.”

Loki purses his lips. “Indeed. Shall we get started then?”

Everything seems to start out alright, all things considered. Natasha and Wanda are successfully getting the civilians out of the way, as the rest of them fight and keep Loki boxed in, unable to run away from them. It’s when Loki makes a dozen or so clones of himself that it gets tricky.

“Now how will you know which one is the real me?” The Lokis all laugh, scattering about the square to separate the heroes. 

“You gotta hit them!” Clint yells through the comms, shooting an arrow that goes right through one of the Lokis, making it disappear. “That’s the only way to get rid of them!”

Steve is trying his best, but it’s hard to hit one when most of the magical attacks are being aimed at Thor and himself. He puts his shield up to block yet another blast of magic and then throws it at the nearest Loki. Unfortunately, since it was a fake Loki, the shield goes right through him, clattering to the ground a few yards away. Steve realizes his mistake too late, and another magic blast hits him square in the chest, sending him right through the wall of the building behind him, and to top it all off, the force of him going through the wall buries him in rubble. A piece of the ceiling hit’s his head, and he loses consciousness.  
~~~  
This is Bucky’s first time dealing with Loki. He wasn’t around when the god first attacked New York, being frozen at the time.

He’s had a lot of trouble trying to readjust to life again after Steve rescued him from Hydra. They did a lot of bad things to him that Bucky hasn’t talked to anyone about. He doesn’t feel comfortable enough around anyone here to even think about bringing it up. Of course, he has Steve. But, he’s not sure how to trust him. On one hand, he remembers nights gathered around a fire with the man Steve is now sitting next to him, keeping watch together as other men sleep on the ground. On the other, Bucky remembers a lot more of the skinny kid he used to have to save every other day, someone he knew he could trust wholeheartedly. It just wasn’t the same now in the future.

When Steve loses his shield, Bucky is already finding an exit off of the roof he’s stationed on, instincts kicking in once more to save the idiot. He hops off of the roof and onto the fire escape, and watches as the front of a building collapses on Steve. His eyes grow wide and he starts running down the stairs impossibly fast, not even waiting until he reaches the bottom to vault over and falls a few feet onto the ground below. He rolls and immediately stands, running over to where Steve is.

There’s one Loki left and Bucky watches as Thor tackles him, falling through the Loki onto the ground. Thor stands and looks around menacingly, shouting, “Where did he go?!”

Bucky doesn’t help the search, instead starting to shift the large pieces of rubble so that he can get to Steve. No doubt that he’s going to have to go to the hospital after the building fell on him. Bucky’s going to have to make sure he gets proper treatment.

“Wanda, go help robocop while we look for Loki,” Tony says through the comms. 

Bucky feels a hand on his shoulder and flinches away, turning to see Wanda standing there. “Here, let me.” She lifts her hands and uses her magic to effortlessly lift slab after slab off of the pile, starting a new pile next to it. “You keep an eye out for him, okay?”

Bucky nods and gets closer to the pile, knowing one of his own teammates wouldn’t hurt him, even if he doesn't completely trust them. He scans for signs of Steve as rocks continue to move, straining his ears to see if Steve is trying to tell them where he is. Another rock moves and Bucky thinks he sees a hand, but something about it is… off. He moves anyway, towards the hand. Wanda notices and pulls more out from that area, and Bucky takes a sharp inhale.

Wanda drops the last piece as Bucky crouches, seeing the same thing Bucky is. “Guys, we have a problem.”

“Yeah we do,” Clint answers, “Loki’s gone. Vanished. Somehow he managed to slip past us. Which means he’s still out there. What’s up with you?”

Tony, Sam, Thor, and Vision land in the middle of the clearing, with Clint and Natasha running back in from a side street. They all watch as Bucky stands with what looks like just the empty Captain America armor. He turns around and a chorus of gasps rings out from the team – it’s not empty. Steve’s unconscious in Bucky’s arm, his skinny legs and arms dangling limply.

“What happened?” Sam says in shock.

Thor grips Mjolnir tightly and grits his teeth. “He was hit with Loki’s magic. We must find him and force him to reverse this!”

“Hospital,” Bucky stays quietly, and everyone startles – Bucky hardly ever talks. “We need to get him to a hospital.”

“Yeah, okay,” Tony says, “Jarvis, alert the doctors at the tower about what happened. Get him back there Bucky; we’ll keep looking for Loki; he couldn’t have gotten far.”

Bucky nods and starts to quickly walk back to the tower, cradling Steve tightly to his chest and avoiding the public eye, hoping no one gets a picture of this for Steve's sake. Jarvis opens the front doors for him and the elevator is already waiting, ready to take him up to the hospital floor. Bucky stares at the doors as the elevator goes up, waiting for them to open.

A handful of doctors are waiting for him when they do, trying to take Steve from Bucky so they can make sure he’s okay.

“No,” Bucky growls, and the doctors freeze in fear. “He stays with me.”

Not wanting to get hurt, the doctors decide to give up, instead handing over a hospital gown for Steve to change in to and ushering Bucky into a room that’s already set up.

Bucky takes the giant uniform off of the small man and gently pulls the gown over his head, laying him down on the bed before sitting in the chair next to it. The doctors come in and start running tests; their co-workers already warned them that Bucky wouldn’t leave.

“He seems to have a concussion,” one of the doctors says to Bucky, shifting nervously on their feet. “Along with all of his old ailments. He should be okay, relatively speaking, but we don’t know how this will affect him psychologically. If he wasn’t aware of the change before he fell unconscious, he might be in a state of disbelief or denial, especially with how long it’s been since he was like this. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. As this is the cause of magic, only magic will reverse it.”

Bucky gives a short nod and the doctor backs out of the room, leaving the two of them alone. The heart monitor echoes in the room as Bucky studies Steve, eyes roaming over the body he remembers very vividly in most of the memories he’s gotten back. He moves the chair closer to the bed and gently tilts Steve’s face. The scar under his chin from that nasty uppercut isn’t there anymore – so Loki must have just taken his powers away. 

He sits and waits for Steve to wake up alone – he knows at least some of the Avengers are back when he hears them conversing with doctors outside, but none of them come in to bother him. He likes that.

The hallway grows quiet and stays quiet for a long time before Bucky sees Steve shift. He hopefully leans closer to the bed, making sure Steve will be able to see him when he wakes up.

“Bucky?” Steve mumbles, cracking his eyes open just enough to see. “Bucky, what happened?”

“Loki hit you with magic,” Bucky mumbles, and Steve furrows his eyebrows.

“Hit me with – magic? What did it do?” He takes a shuddering breath and his eyes open completely all of a sudden, fully awake.

He sits up and looks down at himself, pulling his hand up as he stares at it in disbelief. “This – this is just a dream, right?” Steve looks over to Bucky, but it takes him a few seconds before Bucky can recognize the expression – fear. Steve’s never shown fear before.

“No Steve, it’s – it’s not,” he apologizes, noticing that Steve’s already quickened breath is getting shorter. “Hey, hey, easy there,” Bucky says, laying his hand on top of Steve’s and giving it a gentle squeeze. Steve locks eyes with Bucky and falls immediately into an old habit – he starts to match Bucky’s breathing to calm him down, so he doesn’t have an asthma attack.

Steve coughs into his arm and Bucky moves back away, hoping he hadn’t overstepped any boundaries with that. He just can’t help it – this is the Steve he can remember. This – This is the Steve that he loved.

A doctor walking by sees that Steve’s awake and comes rushing in. “Are you okay?” he asks Steve, moving over to the monitor to make sure everything is okay.

Steve squares his shoulders and answers with a polite, “ Yes.”

Bucky knows that’s bullshit. He just woke up and almost had an asthma attack when he found out what happened. But he knows Steve – always trying to look braver than he feels.

“I assume Mr. Barnes caught you up then?” the doctor asks, and Steve nods. “We were informed that everyone is working diligently to try and find Loki to restore your usual self, but in the meantime, we need you to be extra cautious. I’ll let you go back upstairs, but the front desk has a handful of medications you will need to take to make sure you stay healthy.”

“Understood,” Steve answers, and the doctor disconnects him from the monitor. He then leaves, and once Steve is sure he’s out of sight, he slumps back against the bed, a pained look on his face. “Now I have to deal with medicine again,” he mumbles, slowly pushing the blankets off of him and swinging his legs off of the bed. They dangle in the air, hanging a few inches off of the ground. Bucky stands up next to him as Steve pushes himself off of the bed, catching him as he trips into Bucky. “Sorry,” Steve mutters.

“It’s alright,” Bucky responds truthfully. He finds his usual barriers and broodiness being pushed away just by having Steve at his side. He puts Steve on his left and lets Steve brace himself against Bucky’s metal arm, still getting used to being small again. The front desk provides them with a number of medications and an inhaler, and then they are back on the elevator, heading up to their floor.

Steve coughs again when they exit the elevator, and Bucky diligently walks him to the living room, letting him sit down on the couch before getting him a glass of water from the kitchen. He sits it on the table next to Steve as Steve searches for the remote.

“Thanks, Buck,” he says, pulling the remote out from under his sketchbook.

Bucky walks around Steve to sit down on the couch as Steve turns the TV on but hesitates – usually, he’d sit on his end of the couch, and Steve would take the other. But, Steve is different now. It’s not permanent, but it’s – familiar. Nice. He sits down on the cushion next to Steve, and Steve glances at him curiously. He doesn’t say anything though, focusing on the TV.

Bucky can’t focus on the TV, unlike Steve. He can hear the wheezing of every breath Steve is taking, and it oddly comforts him, reminding him of old times.

“Pardon me,” Jarvis says, pausing the TV, “But Mr. Stark wanted me to tell you that everyone is going to leave the two of you alone for now, until they find Loki. He said you’re welcome to come see them, but they don’t know how the Captain feels, so they don’t want to be bothering.”

“Thanks, Jarvis,” Steve says, and the TV resumes. “I guess I’m okay,” he says quieter, so Bucky can hear it. “It’s still a lot to take in. I guess I am a bit cold though.”

Bucky’s instincts kick in and before he knows it, he finds himself walking across the apartment to his bedroom, pulling a blanket off of his bed. Cold means sick, and Steve doesn’t have a strong enough immune system to get sick. He has to keep Steve healthy until they can track down Loki. 

“Is this from your bed?” Steve questions as Bucky wraps it around Steve, making sure he’s completely covered. “I could have just grabbed one from mine.”

“It wasn’t a problem,” Bucky answers, and, deeming Steve to be sufficiently covered, sits back down next to him.

Steve looks at him, confused. “Buck, you’ve been acting strange ever since I woke up after the attack. Are you sure Loki didn’t hit you too?”

“I’m sure,” is Bucky’s response, not saying anything else.

Steve shakes his head and goes back to watching the TV.

A few days pass and there’s still been no sign of Loki. During these days, Steve has found Bucky to be a lot more talkative than usual and is definitely acting differently around him. Bucky’s been making all the food, making sure Steve is wearing enough clothing that he won’t get cold, and asking him if he’s okay at least once an hour.

“Stop, it, Bucky, just – stop!” he yells exasperatedly as Bucky tries to tuck him into a blanket on the couch again. Bucky freezes, and Steve sighs. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. I can handle covering myself in a blanket; I’m not completely useless like this.”

Bucky stands upright with a sad look on his face. “I didn’t mean to make you feel useless. I was just trying to help.”

Steve shakes his head as he looks up at Bucky and asks, “What has gotten into you lately? Before the fight with Loki, you didn’t seem to want anything to do with me. Now, you won’t leave me alone. Buck, tell me, is everything really okay?”

Bucky sits down next to Steve and clasps his hands together in his lap, thinking. “I don’t know,” Bucky answers honestly. “It just – feels different, with you like this again. Feels more like what I remember.”

Steve frowns. “You remember more of me like this than the big muscular version, huh?” He pauses before he asks, “Is that why you didn’t like to be around me?”

Bucky hesitates, but then gives a small nod. 

“Hey, it’s okay, Buck. I understand. I don’t know I would’ve trusted me either.”

“You don’t know what they did to me,” Bucky says quietly, and now that he’s started, it doesn’t stop. “They-They tortured me. Used electric volts to scramble my brain, make me forget everything. They put the soldier in its place. They didn’t care about hygiene, just hosed me down with ice cold jets of water before and after I’d get out of the cryo tank. I didn’t want to,” he says, his breath coming out ragged. “I didn’t want to. I fought, I tried, tried to hold on to you,” Bucky admits, “You were the last thing on my mind when they wiped it, so you were the first thing the soldier could remember.”

Steve shifts silently next to Bucky, waiting to see if there was any more he wanted to say. When Bucky stays silent, he says, “I’m sorry Buck, if I had known there was any chance you survived that fall, I would have looked for you.”

Bucky lifts the corner of his mouth in a partial smile and says, “I know you would’ve. None of this is your fault.”

“But if I had just been there –”

Bucky cuts Steve off. “Come on, let’s stop blaming each other, okay? We’re both here now, we both have things we regret, we both have things we get nightmares over.”

Steve nods and says, “Okay,” as he processes what Bucky said. “Wait, we both have things we regret?”

Bucky nods and uses his hand to gesture towards Steve as he says, “Yeah, you crashed the plane and couldn’t get me –”

“I knew what you meant for me,” Steve interrupts, and, speaking slowly, says, “I meant for you. You didn’t choose to become the Winter Soldier.”

“...oh,” Bucky responds, and he finds his heart beating faster. “Did I say that?”

Steve nods.

Bucky sighs and looks down at his hands, wishing he hadn’t said anything. “The one thing I regret is,” he drawls out, trying to stall, but he can’t think of anything else to say. “It’s not telling you I was in love with you,” he mumbles, hoping without the serum Steve couldn’t hear him. Silence ensues, and when Bucky finally musters the courage to look up, Steve is staring at him with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, I should just,” Bucky says, starting to get up.

Steve’s hand moves to grab Bucky’s wrist, and even though Steve is nowhere near strong enough to overpower Bucky, he stops and turns to look at Steve. In Bucky’s confused state, Steve has enough strength to pull Bucky towards him, capturing Bucky’s lips with his own.

Bucky is the first to pull away, breathless, and he sags back down onto the seat next to Steve in shock.

“If I had known…” Steve says, fingers feeling his lips, “I would have asked for us to do that a lot sooner.” He smiles at Bucky and shifts on the seat, grabbing Bucky’s hand again and pulling him down so his head could rest in his lap. Steve’s fingers immediately start to brush through the long strands of Bucky’s hair, and Bucky melts under his touch. “You have no clue how long I’ve wanted to do this,” Steve mutters, moving slow to feel the full extent of Bucky’s soft hair.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” Bucky answers, “This feels fucking amazing.”

Steve laughs and continues to card his fingers through Bucky’s hair. “I do have one question though,” Steve says, “Would you hate it if I go back to being big again?” Bucky shifts so he can look at Steve better, and Steve sighs. “I just – I can’t stand being little again. Not being able to breathe properly anymore, the chance that anything I do could make me sick. I feel so – useless, I don’t know anything other than being the superhero everyone looks up to. But I’m still me. Nothing has changed inside,” Steve says hopefully.

“That’s not true,” Bucky says, “Your lungs would change so you can breathe again.” Steve laughs, Bucky catching him off guard. Once his laughter dies down, Bucky says in a serious tone, “You’re right, though. You’re still you. I... I want you to be happy, and – no, I won’t hate you. I understand, but I hope you understand that it might still take a while for me to get used to it.”

Steve nods, his eyes brimming with tears. Bucky lifts his hand and wipes a stray tear away, then cups his cheek, slowly pulling Steve’s face closer to him and into another kiss.

“Cap, we found Loki,” Tony’s voice echoes through the speakers, causing both Bucky and Steve to jump, their kiss interrupted.

Steve clears his throat. “Okay, what do you want us to do about it?”

“Could the two of you come up here? We’re going to need everyone for this.”

Steve looks afraid, so Bucky whispers, “It’s okay. No one’s gonna hurt you, I promise,” squeezing his hand supportively.

Steve nods and then answers Tony, saying, “We’ll be right up then.”

Timidly, Steve steps off of the elevator behind Bucky, and everyone is surprised when Bucky sits next to Steve inside of hanging out around the edge of the room. 

“Okay,” Tony says, starting to address the group. “We found Loki. But, we need to make sure he doesn’t escape us again. He’s in Central Park this time, terrorizing picnickers.”

There's a moment of silence before Steve realizes they were waiting for him to call the shots still. “Oh, uh. Not really any high ground over there, so it’ll be all hands on. This time lets get Vision up in the air, keeping watch to make sure Loki doesn’t make it through any of us this time. Sam, Tony, attack him from above. Wanda, try to block his magical attacks so that no one else gets hit. Natasha, Clint, Bucky, keep your distance but keep him distracted. Thor, do whatever you can to get him down. And me –” He falters, not sure what he can do. “I’ll get the people out to safety the best I can.”

Everyone nods around the group, and then everyone is up and getting ready. Steve is too small to fit into his uniform, so he tucks his baggy shirt into his pants and makes sure his pants are rolled tight so they won’t fall during the fight.

They make it to Central Park, and it doesn’t take long before they find Loki.

“Back for more, I see?” Loki says as Sam and Tony start to attack him. With a smirk, he says, “And where is your beloved Captain?”

Steve stays hidden in the tree cover, trying to sneak around Loki to get to the civilians.

“You will turn him back, brother!” Thor bellows, charging into the battle.

“And you think you can make me?” Loki says, quirking his eyebrow and dodging Thor’s attack. “How about this. You stop me, and I will gladly restore the Captain to his usual state.”

Steve emerges from the trees and helps a family off of the ground, sneaking back into the tree cover with them. He does this repeatedly, trying not to get involved with the main battle.

Somehow, in the fighting, Thor dropped Mjolnir, now trying to catch Loki as he slips around out of Thor’s reach. Bucky emerges from the treeline, a look of fierce determination on his face that anyone not in the Avengers might have mistaken for the Winter Soldier returning. In reality, it’s just how he looks if something’s happened to Steve and he’s pissed off about it. He pauses by Mjolnir, internally debating for a second before deciding why not. He bends down and wraps his hand around the handle, pulling it up with ease. The other Avengers kind of freeze at this sight, shocked, besides Thor, who is still too busy with Loki to notice. Bucky looks shocked for a second too before the determined expression comes back and he analyzes Loki’s movements. After a few seconds, he runs towards Thor and jumps, landing on top of Loki and pressing Mjolnir into his chest.

Thor stops, shocked as well, but now that Loki is pinned under the hammer, he says, “Well done! Mjolnir has chosen a well deserving man to wield it.”

Bucky looks down at his hand, still shocked, but shakes his head to clear it and focuses on Loki again, growling, “Turn Steve back.”

Loki puts his hands above his head in surrender and then points to Steve. Another blast of magic hits him, sending him flying backwards into the tall grass. Bucky panics when he can’t see Steve for a few seconds, but then he stands back up, grinning, everything having been restored, with his pants rolled up almost to his knees.

Bucky can’t help but smile at how stupid Steve looks as he moves away from Loki, letting Thor put the handcuffs on Loki.

“I shall take him back to Asgard, and we will see what is to become of him there,” Thor says, bowing his head. “I hope all is well now.”

“It’s more than okay,” Bucky says, walking over to Steve and pulling him into a kiss. The other Avengers make shocked noises and wolf whistles, but Bucky doesn’t care. He has Steve with him, and that’s all that matters.


	34. The Same Bedsheets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Dani: Could I have an arranged marriage please? This is maybe a bit weird, but I'd like something as close to canon as possible, with Steve having to marry Bucky to prove that if Cap America marries the Winter Soldier, then the WS is indeed a good person (sorry it's silly). Steve has always been in love with Bucky and is secretly happy with the situation, but doesn't say anything because he doesn't want Bucky to be uncomfortable around him. Some angst with a happy ending please, because of course Bucky has always loved Steve too ;)
> 
> Thanks for the request! Hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, I just changed my major so this semester is a lot crazier than anything previously, and I've got a ton of other projects in the works where this one is pretty close to the bottom priority wise. Requests are still open though, I'll get to them when I can!  
> Also I suck at chapter titles ahdsuhaj it probably doesn't fit that well but oh well :)

Steve sighs. “Is this really our only option?” he asks as he looks over the files in front of him. 

“The government wants to take him from us, Steve,” Tony says, sitting across the table. “They say he needs to be locked up, and that they need doctors to run tests on him.”

Steve scrunches his nose. He knows Bucky went through a lot and would hate to send him back to a place that will use him as a lab rat.

“So you get the point,” Tony continues. “We do this; then they have to jump through more hoops to be able to take him, giving Jarvis and me more time to figure out how to keep them from being able to ever take him.”

“But – marriage papers?” Steve asks, picking one of the documents off of the table.

“We don’t have to do a huge ceremony. Just get you to sign it, and get Bucky to sign it, and then I’ll send it in with Jarvis as a witness. If the government sees he’s married to you, that might change their opinion on him, because if Captain America trusts him enough to marry him…” he trails off and lets Steve finish out the thought. “Once the whole thing blows over, if you want, we can file divorce papers for you. Nothing’s going to be permanent unless you want it to be.”

Steve purses his lips. “Okay.” He takes the pen off of the table and signs the documents where he needs to sign. “I’ll get these right back to you.” He takes the pen and paper upstairs to the gym, which is where he had left Bucky. 

Sure enough, he finds Bucky at the reinforced punching bags, hitting it as it wildly swings around.

“Hey, Buck,” Steve says as he gets close, and Bucky stops hitting the punching bag to turn around and face Steve. “We’re having a little issue with the government.” Steve sits Bucky down and explains the whole thing to him, making sure he knows every detail so Bucky can decide on signing the papers of his own accord. When he’s done talking, Bucky sits in silence for a few minutes; his lips pressed together tightly. 

Bucky finally lets out a sigh and pulls the papers close, picking up the pen and shakily writing out his name. Steve releases the breath he didn’t realize he was holding and stares down at his own hands, trying to still them. He doesn’t have a problem with marrying Bucky – secretly, he’s always wanted it. But, he never thought under these circumstances, especially considering that Bucky doesn’t like him back.

Bucky drops the pen and stands back up, starting to attack the punching bag again. Steve calms himself with a deep breath before picking up the pen and papers and locating Tony again.

“You get him to sign them?” Tony asks as Steve approaches him in the lab.

Steve nods. “I didn’t force him either, so everything’s set.” He hands the papers over to Tony.

“Hey, thanks again for moving into the tower. It makes me feel like I can worry just slightly less, knowing that here there isn’t going to be someone to randomly try and attack the two of you in your sleep, because no one is getting through Jarvis. I’ll keep paying rent on your other apartment if you want, and you can move back once the whole thing blows over, but for now, your things have been unpacked on a floor for the two of you. Just ask Jarvis when you want to go, and he’ll take you there.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Steve says, “hopefully the whole thing will blow over soon.” He leaves with a wave, telling Jarvis to take him up to the common room and to let Bucky know where he is.

Steve sits down in front of one of the TVs, trying to avoid all the news channels when he knows all they are talking about is Bucky. He finally settles on a nature documentary; that’s probably the safest thing he can do. 

The couch behind him dips and someone vaults over the back of it. “Hey, Wanda,” Steve says, not needing to look to know she's the one that sat next to him. 

“Everything go well?” she asks, and Steve sighs. 

“Depends on how you look at it. From an official standpoint, yeah, I guess.”

“And from yours?”

Steve sighs again and runs a hand down his face. “I wish that there was a different way to do this. I wish we didn’t have to get married for the government to lay off some.”

“Is it because he’s a guy?” Wanda questions.

“No! No. I don’t care about that.” Steve grows red and looks away. “It’s because of all people; it’s Bucky.”

A look of realization dawns in her eyes. “You like him, don’t you?”

Steve nods solemnly, biting his lip. “I have for a while. Since before the war, even.”

Wanda nods in understanding. “And you feel like he doesn’t like you back.”

Steve laughs, but there’s no humor to it. “Feel like? Bucky’s probably the straightest guy I’ve ever met.”

Wanda shrugs. “You’ll never know unless you ask, right?”

Steve doesn’t answer, and the conversation dies when the elevator opens, depositing Bucky in the room. 

“Hey Buck,” Steve calls, blatantly ignoring Wanda’s wiggling eyebrows. “I was just watching this documentary, want to join? Or we can head downstairs, your choice.”

Bucky clears his throat and eyes Wanda wearily, still not trusting anyone much other than Steve. “Can we get some food?” he says quietly, and Steve wordlessly passes the remote over to Wanda as he stands. 

“Of course. Let’s head down to the room then; I’ll find something for dinner for the two of us.”

They reenter the elevator again, and Jarvis takes them to their floor. Bucky stands in the middle of the living room as Steve walls into the kitchen, searching through the cabinets to look for something he knows how to make. Settling on a microwave meal, he opens multiple cans of soup and dumps them all into a container before putting it in the microwave. He turns around to see two rings sitting on the counter along with a note. 

_If you’re going to be married, you need rings. So, I went ahead and bought some; they should fit the robot and your fingers. Go ahead and keep them, I don’t need them back._

“Hey Buck,” Steve says, and Bucky turns around. Steve holds one of the rings up in his hand so Bucky can see before tossing it over to him. Bucky catches it and looks at it funny before slipping it onto his finger. Steve is glad he understood what it was for as he slips the other ring onto his own finger. The microwave beeps and Bucky comes over to eat.

They eat in silence, sitting at the kitchen counter together. Steve wants to break the awkward silence, but he doesn’t know what to say. Bucky probably wouldn’t answer him anyway. They just got married after all – what is Steve supposed to say to him now?

They both finish at the same time, so Bucky helps Steve clean up before they both head over to the bedrooms together. 

Or, at least, what they thought was the bedrooms.

It turns out; there’s only one giant bedroom. The bed is super king sized, big enough to comfortably fit two super soldiers. Steve blushes at the thought of having to sleep with Bucky next to him.

“I, uh, guess there’s only one bed,” Steve says as Bucky walks further into the room, as if Bucky couldn’t see that already. 

“I’ll take the couch,” is Bucky’s response, devoid of any emotions. He pulls a pair of clothes out of one of the cabinets and takes a blanket from the end of the bed before pushing past Steve back out of the room.

Steve is partially grateful, not wanting to share a bed with Bucky so soon. The other half is upset at how quickly Bucky decided he wasn’t going to sleep with him and take the couch instead, wanting to see Bucky fast asleep next to him tangled in the same bedsheets when he wakes up in the morning.

He suppresses this quickly, knowing it will only ever be a fantasy. He supposes once this whole marriage thing blows over, Steve will have to help Bucky get out there and find a girl. For now, though, he focuses on getting ready for bed and not thinking about how Bucky’s long hair might look all tangled up after sleeping all night, or how peaceful he would look for once since everything has happened as he’s asleep. Steve’s dreams are about Bucky.

The next day, Steve hardly sees Bucky. By the time Steve gets up and ready at seven in the morning, Bucky is already dressed and eating breakfast. He disappears soon after that, and Steve spends his time alone hanging up decorations around the rooms so they aren’t as bare and depressing looking. 

Bucky comes back in at some point, but he ignores Steve, disappearing into another room on their floor. Steve sighs, believing it’s his fault for even saying yes to Tony in the first place and then taking the papers down for Bucky to sign. If Steve was in Bucky’s shoes… well, he’s not sure what he’d have done.

Then Steve gets called out for a mission, him and Wanda going alone, not needing anyone else.

“You need help,” Wanda says on the ride there.

“Thanks,” Steve replies, rolling his eyes.

“Seriously Steve, this whole thing is eating away at you. Either talk to Bucky about it or get Tony to nullify the marriage papers because you can’t keep going like this.”

“Oh really?” Steve says, quirking his eyebrow. “Watch me.”

The mission lasts a few days, both Steve and Wanda banged up once they finish, but alive. They sit in silence on the way back, Wanda knowing that if she tried to bring it up again Steve would just shove it to the side, and they’ve been through enough recently.

By the time they get back to the tower, all Steve can think about is sleep. He walks tiredly into his and Bucky’s floor and starts to peel the uniform off as he walks, missing Bucky perking up from the kitchen table when he spots Steve.

Steve walks into the bedroom and strips the rest of the uniform off, changing into the comfiest clothes he has before climbing into bed. He’s so tired he misses that the bed isn’t made and that his pillow smells lightly of Bucky.

Sunlight filters in through the window the next morning and hits Steve in the face, waking him up. He squints against the light and slowly moves his hand up to cover his eyes. He groans and shifts on the bed, turning over so the sun isn’t in his face anymore. He had planned on going back to sleep, but instead his eyes open wide and his heart starts beating as he sees Bucky in the bed next to him. Steve sits up quickly and the blankets pool around his waist, the sunlight now moving behind him and hitting Bucky instead. It glints off of his brown hair and Steve is mesmerized for a few seconds before remembering _Bucky is in his bed._ He climbs out carefully and walks out of the room to the kitchen to make some coffee. He’s going to need it after that.

He ponders why Bucky was there while the coffee brews. He must have come in after Steve was already asleep; otherwise Steve would have noticed. Was he just tired of the couch? Or maybe he missed Steve? But that’s ridiculous, if he missed Steve he wouldn’t have slept in the same bed as him… unless … no, Steve doesn’t let the rest of that thought finish. 

Once the coffee finishes Bucky steps into the kitchen, bleary-eyed and rubbing the sleep out of them. Steve secretly takes in the sight of Bucky with his disheveled hair out of the corner of his eye, pulling two mugs out instead of one. Filling them both, he passes one to Bucky, who sits down next to him at the counter.

“... We need to talk,” Bucky says after taking a few small sips.

“Would you prefer the bed? I can take the couch for a while.”

Bucky sighs and covers his face with his hand. “You’re such a damn idiot Steve.”

Confused, Steve asks, “I don’t know what you mean? I thought this was because you got in bed with me last night.”

“This is. Is me not liking the couch the only reason you can think of?”

Steve sips his coffee as he wracks his brain, but he can’t think of anything. “No, nothing.”

Bucky lets go of an exasperated breath and says, “For fuck's sake Steve,” before grabbing Steve and pulling him into a kiss.

Steve freezes, shocked, as Bucky kisses against his lips. Bucky pulls away a few seconds later, staring up into Steve’s eyes.

“I just – I couldn’t help it,” Bucky says. “I missed you when you were gone, and realized now that we’re ‘married’... I might as well come clean.”

“But you’ve been ignoring me…” Steve answers, still in shock.

Bucky shrugs. “I thought staying away would mean I wouldn’t have to face my feelings, but,” he shrugs again and looks down. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. Any of this. I should have asked you. You can pretend this never happened; I’ll sleep on the couch again tonight.”

Steve breaks out of his shock then, gently moving his hand to lift Bucky’s face. Once they lock eyes Steve moves in close and kisses Bucky back, and Steve can almost feel the relief and excitement from Bucky as he starts to kiss back.

Breathless, they pull apart, resting their foreheads against each other. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Steve replies, before leaning in to kiss Bucky again. 

The next morning, Steve wakes up early, turning to see Bucky fast asleep next to him tangled in the same bedsheets. He smiles sleepily and presses a kiss to Bucky’s forehead before pulling Bucky into his arms, falling back asleep.


	35. The Modern World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by Dani - AU: the Winter Soldier is freed before Steve wakes up and works with the Avengers, but no one knows his identity because he always leaves as soon as the mission is finished. When Captain America joins the team, they're drawn toward each other for some reason, both protecting the other, until Bucky is hurt defending Steve, and that's when they finally unmask him... Thank you!
> 
> Thanks for the request, hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been too long. Two months and like a week. I'm sorry, homework and this chapter got out of hand and then I was really lacking inspiration for a while. Please accept this long ass chapter (6688 words!!!) as an apology along with a promise to at least get a chapter out per month :). Enjoy!

“There’s another attack downtown,” Tony says, speaking to the other Avengers gathered in the room. “Natasha, you still have Winter’s contact number?”

“Why does he have such a strange name? Can’t we change it?”

“Shut up, Hawkeye.”

Clint sticks his tongue out at Tony but stays quiet. 

Natasha ignores Clint, saying, “Yes, I already contacted him. He’ll meet us there.”

Tony nods. “Okay then, suit up everyone, we’ve got a city to save.”

Ten minutes later, the Avengers find themselves downtown, starting to fight the robot pigeons attacking the people.

“I already hated pigeons,” Clint says as he shoots an arrow, killing three of them. “Who had to make them robots that are even worse than normal pigeons? Who knew they could be even worse?!”

Suddenly another figure appears with a black mask covering the lower half of his face, using a gun to shoot down more of the pigeons.

“Hey, there you are, Winter!” Tony says as he flies through pigeons, knocking them to the ground. “I was starting to think you were going to miss the party.”

“Tony, will you stop calling our fights parties?” Natasha says as she too shoots into the pigeon swarm, keeping an eye on Bruce down the street on standby.

“He is right though!” Thor says, smiling as he throws Mjolnir over and over again into the pigeons. “Fighting always happens at an Asgardian party.”

“Well, this isn’t Asgard, so it’s not a party.”

It takes the group a while to make sure every last robot pigeon has been taken out and accounted for before they finally stop.

“Tall dark and mysterious has already disappeared,” Tony comments. “Do you guys find it strange that he never talks?”

“We’ve already got two airheads on the team that doesn’t shut up,” says Natasha, “ It’s nice to have someone who actually does his work without talking.”

“He never makes it to the after party though!” Under a glare from Natasha, Tony clears his throat and corrects, “I mean, the debriefing.” A call comes in for Tony and he brings his hand up to the side of his face so everyone knows he’s only half listening.

“Not everyone is okay with their identity being public, so he’s allowed to miss. We should go do that now, by the way, so we can figure out where these robot pigeons came from?”

“Can’t,” Tony says. “Urgent business. S.H.I.E.L.D. just called, they need me in the arctic circle. If they weren’t lying, America’s about to get the surprise of their lives.” With that, he flies off, leaving the rest of the group by themselves, confused.  
~~~  
“I can’t believe it,” Tony says in awe. “He’s really still alive?”

“Yes, sir,” Jarvis says through Tony’s suit. “And he has been the last ten times I’ve said it.”

“Yeah yeah okay, let's get him out then.” Tony uses his laser to carefully cut a block of ice out of the front of an old crashed airplane – one that contains the legendary figure, Captain America. They’ll have to move the block of ice somewhere else to thaw the Captain out because the ice certainly isn’t going to melt here. They crane his body out of the ship once Tony frees it from the ground, and then they haul it onto a medical helicopter headed for New York.

“Take him to the tower,” Tony says. “I’ll meet you there.”  
~~~  
“For the last time Clint, move out of the way, the helicopter should be arriving any second now!”

Tony’s suit was faster than the helicopter, so he made it back first and had people start to prep the hospital for a major dethawing. 

“I wanna see what you found alive still in the ice!”

The sound of a nearby helicopter cuts through the air and Tony turns to see it’s finally arrived.

“Bruce!!” Tony calls out to find the scientist.

“I’m here! I’m here,” he says, rushing over.

The helicopter lands and they help Tony and Bruce load Captain America onto a stretcher before leaving.

“Holy shit it’s Captain America!” Clint exclaims as they wheel the stretcher quickly over to the elevator.

“He’s not taking visitors,” Tony says before the doors close. “So I better not see any of you on the hospital floor unless you’re sick.”  
~~~  
It’s a long, slow process to thaw him out of the ice, one that takes countless doctors to make sure he stays alive so that the others can sleep a few hours before continuing. Once they finally have removed all of the ice, his body starts to heat itself up on its own, so Tony kicks everyone out and sits next to the bed so that someone is there when he wakes up.

It happens slowly. Tony has Jarvis put on some soft music from around the forties to try and help ease the transition. He tries to limit the amount of new technology in the room and chucks the telephone outside, but he needs something to do as he waits so he has to keep the tablet. As the hours' pass, Tony keeps an eye on the temperature reading Jarvis is doing so Steve isn’t hooked up to any machines. 

Finally, Steve's eyes open. He slowly sits up and looks around the room, confused. Tony sets his tablet down but doesn’t say anything.

“Howard?” he asks when his eyes land on Tony.

Tony rolls his eyes and laughs. “Man, I should have gotten someone else to do this.”

“You don’t sound like Howard.”

“Well, that would be a first. Been a long time since someone’s not compared me to my old man.” He sighs. “I’m sorry about this, but – It’s not the 1940’s anymore. Surprise?” 

“You’re Howard's son? I didn’t know he had a son.”

Tony sighs again and shakes his head. “That’s because I didn’t exist when you knew him. Didn’t you hear me? It’s not the 1940’s anymore. You crashed that plane in the artic to stop the bombs from going off and were frozen. We just finally recovered the plane and found you inside, still alive. We’re in the 2000s now, and a few years into it at that. You’ve been frozen for almost 70 years, Steve.”

Steve stares at Tony confusedly as he processes everything he said. His eyes roam around the room again, looking for something – anything – that could mean this was a joke. An elaborate prank, maybe Peggy and the Commandos are waiting just outside. He wouldn’t put it past one of them to do something like this. But then he sees Tony’s tablet. It’s not sitting flat on the chair so Steve can see some of the screen – it’s definitely nothing he’s seen before. 

“Yeah, I know, it’s a lot to take in. I’ll leave you alone and give you some time to process everything.” He picks up his tablet and leaves, closing the door softly behind him. He leans against the wall next to the door– he doesn’t want to go far, but he knows Jarvis is keeping an eye on Steve.

Steve looks down at his hand, turning it back and forth and forming a fist over and over again, trying to determine if this is actually real. He remembers some old tale people would say – if you don’t feel any pain, you're just dreaming. He moves his hand to his other arm and pinches hard, releasing immediately and letting out a small hiss of pain.

So yeah. It’s real.

“Bucky,” he sighs, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. “If only you could see this now.” He pauses and whispers under his breath, “If only you were here now.”

He opens his eyes again and blinks a few times before settling to looking around the room. There’s not much out of the ordinary, besides the lights. They seem a little different, maybe even more compact. Another thing he notices is how cool the room is, not that it bothers him. There are no visible windows and no fan, so why is the temperature so low?

The door opens, and Tony steps back in. “I know it’s going to take a while for you to adjust, so I’m making sure that everyone doesn’t bother you unless you want. I own the building we are in at the moment – it’s part office, part hospital, and part living quarters. The team has been told not to bother you, and I tried to limit the amount of modern technology in the room prepped for you so you don’t feel too overwhelmed.”

“The team?” Steve questions.

“Oh yeah, sorry. We’ve got this superhero team, saving the world from evils and whatnot, and everyone lives here in the tower. Not that anyone’s gonna force you to join, I will let you keep the apartment free of charge whether you do or don’t. It’s just easier to refer to them as the team.”

Steve nods, pushing the blanket off of himself and standing. “Anything else I should know about?”

Tony looks up at Steve and in doing so, remembers the most important thing.

“Yes, there is! How could I forget, I’m sorry. The tower is run by an AI. Artificial intelligence? Kinda like a robot without a physical body, or multiple physical bodies if you count that he’s been in everything that I build. Anyway, he’s a talking voice. His name is Jarvis. Just let him know if you need anything, and he’ll help you out. Right, J?”

“Of course, sir. If it would make you feel better Captain, I can make a noise, such as a doorbell, before I start to talk if you would prefer, so that I don’t start speaking out of nowhere and startle you.”

“Uhh…” Steve says, not sure how or where to address the voice. “That sounds – nice. Thank you.”

Tony gestures with his head, saying, “Come on, I’ll take you upstairs.”

Steve follows him to the elevator, looking around in wonder at all the new things in the hall and the lack of people. Once they are in the elevator Steve feels slightly better, there’s nothing really new in there, besides the lack of music. 

“I leave you here,” Tony says once the door opens. “If Jarvis can’t help you, I’ll do my best, or send someone else down. Let me know when you’re ready to meet everyone else and don’t feel pressured to meet all of them at once. Fair warning, Natasha might show up unnoticed. She tends to just do what she wants; she’s the only one I can’t control. Not that I’d want to. Anyway, call if you need anything.” Steve steps off of the elevator and the doors close, leaving him alone in silence. 

He looks around at the giant room, pondering asking if the whole thing really was his. He’s standing in the living room, but it seems the one room is larger than his entire apartment, and he had shared that for a few years with Bucky. There’s a thin, black rectangle hanging on the wall that’s about twice as wide as he is, but he doesn’t know what it is. Moving into the kitchen, he finds the biggest fridge and the biggest oven he has ever seen. And it’s all to himself. He feels dwarfed in the apartment, almost like he’s the skinny kid again. He spots a sliding door to a small balcony and heads out there for some fresh air. 

He sits in a waiting chair and stares out into the city. It doesn’t look anything like what he remembers. The Empire State Building isn’t the only tall skyscraper anymore. The streets are full of traffic; bright yellow cars dotting the roads. He sighs and leans back against the chair, looking up in the sky to see planes and helicopters flying by. 

“Jarvis?” He asks tentatively, unsure if the AI works outside.

“Can I help you, Captain Rogers?”

Steve pauses, unsure of how to word his question. “What… What’s happened in New York while I was... away?”

Jarvis gives Steve a brief history of New York since World War II, offering to order history books if he wants to know more. Steve agrees and asks for a few other things as well, including art supplies. The light starts to fade, so Steve goes back inside. 

“Jarvis, is baseball still around?” Steve asks in an attempt at a joke.

“There’s a game on now; would you like to watch it?”

“Is there a radio around here?” he asks, looking around as he sinks into one of the couches. He's never been on something so soft before. 

“No, it's on the TV.”

“They broadcast sports now?” Steve says, looking around for the small box. “Well, go ahead then, thanks.” He figures he’ll find it once he hears it.

Steve’s eyes grow wide as the TV mounted on the wall turns on, the bright HD display showing the middle of a baseball game; commentators heard overtop of it. He’s never seen a TV so… big. The audio is crystal clear; so clear he can hear each thwack of the ball hitting the bat, as well as the dirt sliding under those trying to slide into the plate. He can practically see each blade of grass; see each stitch on the baseball. It’s… too much. He feels overwhelmed.

Steve gets up in a hurry, turning away from the TV and taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He hears the TV turn off behind him and silently thanks Jarvis.

Once he’s calmed down some, he considers going to sleep, but everything else here has been so large and unusually soft; he’s scared to see what the bedroom looks like. So instead, he asks, “Is there a gym nearby I could use?”

“Mr. Stark has a gym here in the tower that the Avengers use. I can take you there if you would like. Just know Ms. Romanoff is there at the moment, and I don’t think she’d leave if you asked.”

Steve shrugs, saying, “I gotta meet everyone at some point if I’m going to stay here as I get adjusted, may as well start in the gym.” The elevator door opens and Steve steps inside, Jarvis quickly whisking him down to the right level.

The first thing Steve sees when the doors open is the punching bags, which sound great to him right now. It’s not until he steps out into the spacious gym that he spots the red-haired woman on the other side, climbing a towering rock wall. 

Not wanting to interrupt her climbing, Steve walks over to the punching bags and finds some cloth to wrap his hands with.

“I’m Natasha,” a voice behind him says, and he jumps, turning around wildly. Standing in front of him is the red-head who had just been most of the way up the climbing wall not that long ago.

Steve nods. “Ms. Romanoff; Jarvis told me you were already here. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

Natasha’s eyebrow quirks a little, barely enough for Steve to notice. “Please, you don’t need the formalities here. Natasha is fine.”

Steve nods again, finishing wrapping his hands. “So, what do you do?”

The side of her mouth curls a tad in a slight smirk as she says, “I mostly babysit the guys. Still don’t know how I got on the team; I’m a spy, not a soldier.”

Steve shrugs. “Well, spies can be soldiers where I’m from. I’m sure there’s something you can do other than climbing really fast.”

“Well, I don’t have any magic like Thor does, I can’t fly like Tony, I’m not strong like Bruce… I just have stealth and guns.” 

Steve looks impressed. “Hey, if the others can really do all that stuff you said, you must be pretty impressive to be on the team.”

“You sure do know how to make a girl feel better, huh?” Natasha teases.

Steve grows flustered. “Oh, I, uh, didn’t mean –”

“Relax there; I didn’t mean anything by it. I just wanted to say hi is all; I’ll let you get to your punching bags.” She saunters away, and Steve gets the feeling she came over for more than just that, leaving with exactly what she wanted. He starts to punch the bags, hoping to work himself to exhaustion so he can pass out and forget all this new stuff for a while.  
~~~  
He meets Tony again next, learning more about what he does.

Jarvis makes a noise in the ceiling and Steve looks up from his book to hear what Jarvis has to say. He certainly wasn’t expecting the books to come in the next day.

“Captain Rogers, Mr. Stark has requested to see you in his lab, if you are willing.”

“Lab?” Steve questions, marking his page and setting down _Captain America: A History._

“Mr. Stark has many labs in the tower, one of which belongs to Dr. Banner. He designs many things for Stark Industries, a company Howard Stark started after the war.”

Steve steps into the waiting elevator as he says, “What is he doing then?”

There’s a pause before Jarvis says, “You might want to just see for yourself.”

The elevator opens, and suddenly Steve is surrounded by machinery, many of which are building their own things. He spots the man in question further into the room, working on something on a bench as more machines move to and fro to find the tools he needs. 

“Hey there, Grandpa Frisbee, glad you could make it. Do you want flying boots?”

Steve blinks, trying to process what was just said. “What did you just call me?”

“It’s a nickname, I do that sort of thing,” Tony says, waving it off. He looks up from the machine he’s working on, grease-streaked across his cheeks. “Do you want flying boots?”

“Why would I want flying boots?” Steve asks slowly, very confused.

“It’s another thing I do,” Tony says, gesturing to the wall behind him, where some of his suits are standing. “I fly around in a metal suit fitted with weapons. I’ve designed it all. So, while I’m working on this, do you want flying boots?” He gestures to the table next to him, where Steve finally sees a familiar red, white, and blue.

“Are you making my suit again?” Steve says, running his hand over the new material. “Aren’t the stars and stripes a little old fashioned?”

“Sometimes the people need a little old fashioned. Besides, this is only in case you want to, no one’s gonna force you to wear it. Now, again, do you want –”

“No,” Steve cuts him off, finally answering his question. “No, I don’t want flying boots. I’ll leave that one to you.”

Tony nods, going back to work on his machine. “Okay then. That was all; you can stay if you want though.” One of the robots runs into him and Tony turns wildly, threatening the robot with, “Dum-E if you run into me one more time I will dismantle you and turn you into a trashcan.”

Steve notices the robot is also wearing a dunce cap and decides it would be best to leave and return to his book.   
~~~  
Next is Clint, though the whole meeting was so wild that Steve still isn’t sure it was entirely real. 

He’s reading another stupid Captain America history book – if anyone asked why he was reading them, he’d say he didn’t know, but it’s helping him adjust better, hearing stories of the Howlies and his own adventures. Not that most of them are in any way accurate. Not that any of them know the truth about him and Bucky. Not that many of them talk about Bucky a lot in the first place. 

Steve places his bookmark in and closes the book with a sigh, tired for now of the stupid stories. This is by far the worst one he’s gotten to yet. Instead, he pulls the sketchbook off of the table next to him, going back to sketching the skyline out the window. He’d say it’s not bad for not having drawn in seventy years.

He gets so into his drawing and shading that he almost misses the noise. It’s quiet at first, but grows louder and seems to be coming from above.

Steve sets the notebook back down on the table next to him and stands, looking around on the ceiling to try and find the source of the noise. He doesn’t think he’s heard anything like it before – the closest thing he can think of is when a small animal would crawl around in the rain gutter. 

“Hello?” he calls out tentatively, not knowing why and not expecting an answer. The noise stops suddenly.

“Shit,” Steve hears from above, around the spot the noise was. It sounded like a male’s voice, and not like Tony, so he assumes it’s another teammate. “Musta taken a wrong turn,” the voice says. “Didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“Well, you’re here now, why don’t you come on down? Out? If you can?”

There’s more noise, and then one of the vents pops out of the ceiling, a tall, thin man swinging down after it. He lands on his feet in front of Steve and sticks his hand out, saying, “Hi, I’m Clint.”

“Steve.”

Clint nods. “Yep. You certainly are.”

Steve gestures up to the ceiling. “You do this often?”

“Yep. I find taking the vents is more fun than the boring elevator, but I guess I made a wrong turn today. Wonder if Tony changed something now that someone’s living on this floor.”

“So I take it you’re like Natasha and like to climb a lot?”

“You met Nat already? I didn’t know that.” He scratches the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that. I used to be in the circus, so I did a lot of trapeze and stuff. Really helped with the whole spy thing, not really helping here. I do probably have the coolest weapon on the team, maybe besides Thor’s hammer.”

“What do you use?”

“A bow and arrow,” Clint winks. “Like I said; was in the circus. We needed talents, so now I have the best aim on the team, besides maybe Winter. And before you ask, yes, I could technically use a sniper, but that’s so cliche and boring, why would anyone want that?”

Steve blinks and furrows his eyebrows, confused as to why a more sensible weapon would be forgotten due to it being boring, but decides not to say anything. After all, all he uses is a shield and his fists, so he doesn’t really have room to speak. 

“Well, I should get going before Nat finds out I was here and interrupting you; she’ll kill me for it. I’ll be around if you need me. Oh, and also, you’re going to need to put the vent back on.” With that, he turns back around and jumps off of the floor, barely grabbing the edge of the hole in the ceiling and pulling himself in.

Steve shakes his head as the sound of Clint retreats, picking the vent cover up and placing it back over the hole, hoping that’s all it needs to not fall out.  
~~~  
His next meeting is much calmer, but that’s how Bruce likes to keep things. 

It was an accidental meeting, Jarvis was taking Steve on a tour of the building to get used to the many features when he ran into the man on what was originally an empty lab floor.

“I’m Bruce,” he says, shoving his handful of books to rest on the rim of his mug so he can extend his hand out to Steve.

“Steve,” he responds, shaking Bruces’ hand. “Jarvis told me this floor was empty; I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone.”

“And from that tone of voice, I’d reckon I’m not the first you’ve met either. Oh, and I had the room I was in set to do not disturb mode, so Jarvis can’t see in it. Mind following me upstairs to my lab? I’d love to talk some more if you’re willing.”

Steve accepts, glad to finally meet someone who seems calm and collected and – normal. Too normal, if he's honest, to be on a team with the likes of these people. He’s not sure he should say anything about it though. 

They don’t talk until they get into Bruce’s lab, where Bruce deposits the books in a pile on one of the desks and pulls a chair over for Steve to sit.

“Tea?” he questions, refilling his mug.

“Sure.”

Bruce fills a mug for Steve and brings the sugar over before sitting down in his own chair. “I’m assuming you’ve at least met Natasha; she’s always done her own thing.”

Steve nods as he takes a sip of tea. “Tony too, since he was the one to wake me up. And Clint, he was in the vents.”

Bruce nods solemnly. “He does that a lot. So that leaves two other than me.”

“Two?” Steve questions, not having been told exactly how many members there were on the team.

“Yeah, Thor and Winter. Neither of them live here though, so it might be hard for you to meet them.”

“Thor and Winter?” Steve can’t help but laugh. “Those certainly sound like strange names. Seriously, who names their kid Thor? The only Thor I’ve ever heard of is the Norse god, and I don’t see any modern-day parent naming their kid after a god.” When Bruce isn’t laughing with Steve and still looks completely serious, Steve grows still, and his eyes grow wide, saying, “He isn’t, is he?”

Bruce nods. “Lightning and all. Should have been here to see his brother Loki, that was some real magic he had.” The watch Bruce is wearing starts beeping so he sets his mug down and takes some deep breaths to calm himself until the watch stops beeping. He then picks up his mug again and resumes the conversation as if nothing happened. “Winter is a ghost story. We don’t know his real name, but the media’s taken to calling him the Winter Soldier, so that’s what we call him. We don’t know why. He’s like Clint except he actually uses guns. He’s one hell of a sniper.”

Steve looks confused. “What did you just do?”

“Breathing exercises? I don’t want to hurt you because I got mad about Loki,” Bruce teases, but then stops smiling for a serious expression. “No one’s told you what I do?”

Steve shakes his head. “Nope. They’ve been introducing only themselves.” He rubs the back of his neck as he says, “I was kind of wondering what you did; you seem a lot more normal than everyone else.”

Bruce chuckles and turns one of his computer screens so Steve can see it. “Jarvis?”

A video pops up of the last fight the Hulk was in, and Steve’s jaw drops as he watches the giant green beast rip apart different robots. “That’s you?!”

“Yep,” Bruce says, popping the p as he presses a key to stop the video. “Lab experiment gone wrong. Very. Wrong. I can usually control the Hulk, but when I get angry…” he shakes his head. “Let’s just say you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

“Noted,” Steve says with a nod, taking another sip of tea. The modern world certainly is full of surprises.  
~~~  
The ceiling dings and Steve looks up from his art experiment, waiting for Jarvis to talk. He never really had the money for colored pencils back in the day, and now he has all these colors at his fingertips. He’s been trying to find the right shade of blue for his portrait to commemorate Bucky for forever now.

“Thor has just arrived, and is asking to meet you,” Jarvis says. “He just got back from Asgard. When Mr. Stark told him about you, he said he wanted to meet the decorated war hero. Not that he actually knows anything you have done,” Jarvis adds.

“What the hell, I’ve met everyone else. Am I going somewhere or is he coming here?”

“He is in the elevator as we speak, so I can bring him here.”

Steve closes his sketchbook and sets it to the side, standing and moving to the elevator to greet the god. When the door opens, it reveals something Steve was not expecting.

Thor, dressed in his usual cape and armor, with his long hair falling behind his shoulders, opens his arms wide as he steps off of the elevator and quickly traps Steve in a bear hug, making him feel small again.

“Steven! Brother Tony told me much about you.” He pulls away from Steve and stands back, examining him. “You certainly look like a mighty soldier. They say you fell into the frozen tundra and have been asleep for years until they finally fished you out of the icy waters.” He bows his head in respect. “I have full respect to a soldier who goes beyond the line of duty and sacrifices himself for the good of the people.”

“Uhh… Thanks?” Steve says, at a loss for words. He’s feeling a little overwhelmed. 

Thor smiles wide and continues, “The lady of spiders also told me to introduce myself, if you were willing to meet me. I am Thor, god of Thunder, Prince of Asgard. I can call upon lightning and storms, as well as fly, thanks to my mighty hammer.” He smiles at Steve, waiting for an answer. 

“Yes, that sounds, uh, cool.”

“I shall be going now to consume what the arrow man calls ‘pizza.’ Farewell, Brother Steven, and I hope to see you again soon.” He turns back around and the elevator doors open, so Thor steps in.

Once the doors close, Steve asks Jarvis, “Is that normal?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”  
~~~  
Steve continues to grow adjusted to the modern world by himself, though Natasha, Bruce, and Tony like to stop by periodically, and Steve can sometimes hear Clint in the vents. He still hasn’t found the right shade of color for Bucky’ eyes, which upsets him. He’s been slowly decorating the apartment, and he has the perfect place for this sketch once it’s finished. 

When not drawing, meeting with the other Avengers, or trying to catch himself up on what he’s missed, Jarvis has been showing him clips of the battles the others have been in as he assesses how everyone fights. He thinks he wants to get back into fighting – he doesn’t know what else he’d do. He just wants to be sure he’s ready when he does. 

Steve’s brought a time of peace to the rest of the Avengers too – there hasn’t been an attack since the pigeons. They’ve been using it to rest and train, as well as trying to track down whoever made the pigeons in the first place. All in all, it’s been pretty quiet.

Of course, peace never lasts when you’re a superhero. The alarm scares Steve when it first goes off, blaring and flashing as he had been trying to figure out the oven to prepare food. 

“Jarvis?!” Steve yells over the alarms, panicking. 

“Don’t worry, Steve,” Tony’s voice comes over the speaker, calm and almost annoyed. “The alarms just mean that there’s an emergency we have to attend to. The team and I are gonna head out, but Jarvis can put the feed on the TV if you want to see what’s going on.”

Steve nods, forgetting that no one can see him. He sits on the edge of the couch as the TV turns on, split into multiple screens for multiple angles on the attack. It’s the first time he can say he appreciates modern technology. 

Steve’s eyes jump from screen to screen, concerned, as he watches the Avengers arrive at the fight. The scientist behind the pigeons is back again, this time with more pigeons, larger than life rats, and a couple of crocodiles. The man himself decided to show up this time too, feeling his army of robot animals would be enough to protect him. 

When Winter arrives, Steve watches the new man intently. Sure, he had seen him in different battle footage already and knew what he does, something just seems – different. Familiar.

“Jarvis, take me to Tony’s lab.”

The elevator lets Steve out in the same lab he had been in previously, where Tony had been remaking his suit. The robots still build around him even in the absence of Tony, but Steve doesn’t stop to watch. He beelines for his uniform and shield, set up on a mannequin that Tony lined up with his suits. Steve changes as quickly as he can, and feels a sense of calm as he straps his shield on his arm; the suit and the shield bringing a sense of familiarity he hasn’t felt in a while. Almost like what he felt when he saw Winter join in the fight.

“Mr. Stark included an earpiece in your helmet design,” Jarvis says as Steve adjusts the strap on his helmet as he runs to the elevator. “Would you like me to connect you to the others?”

“Sure, but don’t tell them I’m coming. I don’t want them trying to convince me to stay here.”

Jarvis lets Steve out on the first floor and gives him directions as he runs through the streets trying to get to the rest of the group as he listens to them yell at each other.

“Clint stop complaining about the pigeons!” Natasha yells again. “There are more than just pigeons we need to worry about now!”

Steve turns the corner and sees the fight down the street, and it looks even more chaotic than it did on the TV. He pauses for a second as he watches the Hulk throw a car at one of the alligators and then Thor as he fries a bunch of pigeons with lightning before he sees an alligator with his jaws clamped tight on Tony’s foot.

“Get! Off! Of! Me!” he says, kicking it with his other foot after each word. 

Steve pulls his shield off of his arm and throws it at the alligator, making it fall off of Tony. Everyone turns to look as Steve joins the fight, trying to make his way through to the center of the chaos and get to the scientist behind all of this.

“Hey Cap, didn’t know you wanted to join us,” Tony says, blasting his way through a swarm of pigeons. 

“Steve, running through the middle of the mess does not sound like a good idea,” Natasha warns.

“Just cover me!” Steve yells, and he knows at least one person listened when Winter starts focusing his shots on the animals closest to Steve. 

“Hey, Winter’s on the move,” Clint says, but Steve doesn’t notice as he ducks under his shield to avoid the pigeons. 

Steve doesn’t notice until the man appears next to him, having run out of ammo and is instead slicing his way through the problem. Robotic parts drop to the ground around him as he slices through the animals.

“Oh, hey,” Steve says, surprised, as his shield cuts through the head of another crocodile robot. “I thought distance was your thing? Didn’t take you for the up close and personal with knives kind of guy.”

The man looks at him and Steve freezes – that’s the exact color he’s been trying to find for Bucky’s eyes. The man turns away only a second later to fight off more of the robot animals, but Steve is still frozen. It couldn’t really be Bucky, could it? Just some strange coincidence.

“Steve, look out!” a muffled but familiar voice yells, and Winter tackles Steve to the ground so he doesn’t get hit by the bullet shot by the scientist. He had an alternative plan, apparently.

“Did Winter just talk?” Clint says in awe.

That voice is too similar. It’s too similar to Bucky. Steve’s instincts kick in as he sits up after the man rolled off of him and throws his shield hard enough that it goes through any animal that gets in its way before knocking the scientist over to the ground. All the animals drop all of a sudden, lifeless. Tony flies over and secures the scientist before he can run off as Steve assesses Winter.

“Your arm,” Steve says as he rolls him over onto his back. “It’s bleeding.”

He laughs, saying, “It can’t. It’s metal.” He holds up his left arm and Steve sees that his hand is metal, and assumes it’s his entire arm as well.

“No, your other arm. You took that bullet for me, you jerk.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t know how to stay safe, punk.”

“Stop insulting each other, you just met,” Tony says as he lands next to them. “J, call for a medic, we’ll take him back to the tower so his identity isn’t revealed.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” he says, “The jig was up as soon as Stevie threw his shield into the battle.”

“That stupid mask muffles your voice too much,” Steve says, trying to hold back the tears in his eyes. “I’m taking it off.”

“Steve I know you’re pretty new here but if the man doesn’t want us to know who he is –”

“Shut up Clint,” Bucky mumbles after Steve has the mask off. “Holy fuck, I’ve waited so long to say that.”

“Is anyone else here confused?”

Steve ignores everyone else – for him, it’s just the two of them. “I have so many questions for you, Buck.”

“Yeah, well, we both do, huh? Now shut your fat trap and kiss me; I never thought I’d be able to say that again.”

Steve, smiling, does as he’s told, leaning in and pressing a soft kiss against Bucky’s lips. He doesn’t want to stop, but there are people around, so he keeps it short and polite.

“What. The. Fuck.”

Bucky finally addresses the rest of the group as Steve helps him stand back up. “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes of the 107th, at your service.” He glances at his metal arm and finshes, “Well, what’s left of me anyway. Though I’m pretty sure Natasha already knew that; you can’t hide anything from that woman.”

The lack of shock on her face that everyone else has leads Steve to believe Bucky is right.

“James Barnes? Like, dude who fell off a train in the 40’s James Barnes?” Tony asks.

“No, Steve just kissed a random stranger who has the exact same name and looks exactly like his boyfriend.” Bucky rolls his eyes.

An ambulance turns onto the street a few blocks away, so Steve throws Bucky’s metal arm over his shoulder to help him walk into it.

“Boyfriend? I always knew you two were hiding something from the sounds of those books,” Clint says with a grin. “We know how Cap got this far, but – James? Barnes? How the hell are you still here and… young?”

“Bucky, if you will, anything else just sounds too formal or too weird. I can recount my tales later as I have an ambulance to catch but to give a brief summary, Hydra fucked my shit up. If you can’t wait until I tell you more, ask Natasha.” The ambulance stops next to the group and medics throw the doors open. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, my boyfriend and I have a ride back to the tower. We’ll meet you there.”

Steve shakes his head and helps Bucky into the back of the ambulance, sitting down next to him and interlacing his fingers with Bucky’s metal ones as the medics work on his other arm. Bucky leans on Steve’s shoulder to make it easier for the medics to dress his wound, and before Steve succumbs to Bucky and starts to make out with him in the ambulance, he thinks he’s going to like the modern world a whole lot better now that Bucky’s back in it.


	36. Your Jerk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ENDGAME SPOILERS DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw endgame last night and had to ignore the prompts in my list to write this fix it oerudfvouwejksd
> 
> It only fixes the Steve ending though I couldn't figure out how to save anyone else so that it was important to the plot :(  
> Thanks for reading! I'm over on tumblr if you wanna come yell with me about Endgame, just shoot me a message :)

Bucky doesn’t remember much of what happened. With his history of bad memory issues, he isn’t sure what he does remember is even real. They were in Wakanda, fighting weird mutant things and a giant purple alien. He remembers turning to Steve, but then there’s a hole in his memory – the next thing that happened was him finding himself in the same place, but no one else was there. Especially not Steve. 

He started walking out of the forest and found a couple of other people along the way – Sam, to his disappointment; T’Challa; Wanda. They join up with others on the battlefield – one that doesn’t look like there had just been a fight.

T’Challa leads them all to the palace only to find that it’s been five years. They’ve all been gone for five years, because Thanos won. But something happened to bring them back.

What happens next can only be described as a blur – some guy in a red cape comes out of a portal and tells them they need to get to New York to fight Thanos – again. They get there to see an even bigger army than there was last time, standing in the rubble of what had been the Avengers compound. At the end of the fight, the opposing army turns to dust, but it wasn’t without sacrifice.

The first thing Steve does once the battle is over is run over to Bucky and hug him. Bucky hugs back, but it’s hard for him – Steve’s been without him for five years, so what if he’s moved on? 

They all clean up as Tony’s funeral is prepared, and Bucky doesn’t see Steve for a while during that time. When the funeral comes, Steve is up in the front on the deck, while Bucky stands behind up on the hill next to the house. Steve leaves soon after that with Bruce/Hulk; whatever the hell is going on with him since everyone disappeared.

Finally, Bucky finds Steve in the temporary Avengers headquarters, stressing over plans on the table. He sees Steve’s compass with Peggy in it laying open on the table, and Bucky takes a deep breath before approaching him.

“Hey,” he says quietly.

Steve turns around, and a tired smile crosses his face. “Hey, Buck.”

“What’re you doing here?”

Steve sighs and looks back to the table. “Trying to figure this out. We have to take the stones back to where we got them. I have to take the stones back to where we got them,” he mutters.

Bucky stands close, but not too close, just in case. Just in case Steve moved on. “You don’t have to go alone, you know.”

Steve sighs again and shakes his head. “Yes, I do. I owe it to them.” He rolls the plans up and sticks them in his pocket. “I’m heading out now if you want to see me off?”

Bucky comes with, wondering when to address this. Them. He wants to say something, but Steve had Peggy out on the table. He might be planning on not coming back. He might have moved off of Bucky and back to Peggy.

Sam meets them there at the time gate – apparently, he knew about this plan before Bucky.

“You sure you want to do this alone?” Sam asks; almost the same thing Bucky said earlier.

Steve simply nods, a determined look on his face. Thor’s hammer is sitting on the platform, waiting for Steve to take it back and return it with him. 

“Don’t do anything stupid till I get back,” Steve teases, staring at Bucky.

Bucky attempts to swallow his heartbreak and says, “How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.”

Steve smiles and shakes his head, climbing onto the platform and picking the hammer up. He nods to Bruce to say he’s ready, and then he stares at Bucky as Bucky stares back.

Steve disappears in front of Bucky’s eyes, and Bucky mentally prepares himself – Steve isn’t coming back. 

“And he’s coming back in 3, 2, 1,” Bruce presses a button, but Steve doesn’t re-appear in the portal.

“What’s going on?” Sam says.

“I don’t know; he completely missed his mark!” Bruce says, playing with the controls.

“Bring him back!”

“I’m trying!”

Bucky turns away, knowing their efforts are pointless. He looks off into the distance out at the lake, watching the setting sun glint off of the surface. A loud noise from the machine forces him to look back at it, and Steve reappears.

“What the hell Steve?!” Sam says adamantly.

“Sorry! Sorry, it’s my fault.” he pulls an oddly circular bag off of his shoulder.

Bucky is overcome with emotions. He was so sure Steve wasn’t coming back, what does he do now that he has?

Being that Sam is right next to the machine, Steve talks to him first, pulling his shield out of the bag and passing the mantle onto a shocked and amazed Sam.

“And what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to retire,” Steve says with a laugh. “I think my time as a hero has ended. I’ll still be around if you need some life-changing advice though, or want to send a new hero my way and I can be their mysterious trainer."

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sam says with a small chuckle, still amazed over the shield. He glances over at Bucky and says, “Uh, I should… go... do… something.”

Sam quickly leaves, Bruce following behind him as he starts to dismantle the time machine, carrying some of it back to the base.

“Hey,” Steve says, still holding the bag in his hand.

“I thought you were leaving,” Bucky admits, not looking Steve in the eye. “I didn’t think you were coming back.”

“Why is that?” Steve asks, stepping closer to Bucky.

“You had Peggy’s picture out on the table.”

“So you thought I was going back to her?”

Bucky sighs exasperatedly, finally looking up at him. “I don’t know, Steve. You’ve been living without me for five years now; I don’t know if you’ve moved on or not. I’ve hardly seen you since we got back, so it's not like I’ve had the chance to ask.”

“I’m sorry, Buck,” Steve apologizes, taking hold of his hands. “I didn’t realize you thought I’d ever move on from you.”

Bucky looks confused. “You mean you haven’t?”

“I’ve thought you were dead before,” Steve says with a pained smile. “I never moved on from you then.”

“But –”

“Peggy’s picture was out because I had a date on the compass. A really important date on the compass that I had to go back to, even though there was no infinity stone to return.” He pulls something out of the bag, something small enough that his whole hand covers it, letting the bag fall to the ground. “This is also the reason I was late,” he admits, before letting go of Bucky’s hands and getting down on one knee in front of him. “Bucky, I’ve had a lot of time to think recently, and I don’t want to ever lose you again. I want someone to share my apartment with, someone to have pointless arguments with, someone to cuddle and watch movies with. Someone to grow old with.” He holds his hand up and reveals a familiar looking ring. “Please, Bucky, will you marry me, so we can do all of this and more, together?”

“Is that…” Bucky starts, recognizing the ring from way back before the war – he and Steve had seen it in a store window, and Steve said if he ever got the money he would buy it for Bucky.

Steve smiles nervously but knowingly, confirming for Bucky that it was indeed the same ring.

“Of course, punk,” Bucky says, letting Steve slip the brass band over his metal finger. Bucky grabs Steve’s hand after the ring is on and quickly pulls him up off of his knees and into a kiss.

When Steve pulls away, breathless, he says, “You jerk.”

Bucky pulls him close for a hug and hums, saying, “But I’m your jerk.”

Steve sighs happily and hugs him back, saying, “Yeah, you are.”


	37. Not A Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt requested by AndromedaBlack: just some sweet cuddle time, please! maybe with touch starved Steve and touch starved Bucky, because Bucky doesn't let anyone but Steve touch him, and Steve doesn't really like anyone else but Bucky touching him either. Thank you!
> 
> Thanks for the request! I hope you like it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need more stucky in my life after Endgame so... suddenly I have inspiration (:  
> Cw: Implied Smut

“You two are disgusting,” Tony says as he walks into the common room. 

“We aren’t doing anything,” Bucky says, his voice half-muffled due to his half-buried face in Steve’s chest.

“I can’t even tell where one of you starts and where the other one ends.”

“We’re just cuddling,” Steve says as he runs his fingers through Bucky’s hair.

“Yeah, we’ve been apart for over seventy years, I think we deserve some cuddle time,” Bucky rebuts, burying his head further into Steve.

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean you always have to be attached at the hip! It’s like you two can’t do anything without the other, not even missions!”

“Be glad the walls are thick,” Bucky says with a shit-eating grin as he wiggles his eyebrows. “Sometimes we’re even more connected.”

Tony makes gagging noises and says, “Jarvis, tell me whenever the two of them are in a room I’m about to enter; if I so much as look at either of them again I’m going to get that imagery in my head and actually throw up.” With that, Tony leaves the room, leaving Steve and Bucky back to their quiet cuddling time. 

“You know he doesn’t mean that,” Steve murmurs into Bucky’s hair.

“I wouldn’t care even if he did,” Bucky says with a soft laugh. “You’re mine, and I’m allowed to show the whole world now, so of fucking course I’m sticking to you as much as I can.”

Steve hums contentedly before saying, “You didn’t have to take it that far though.”

Bucky shrugs. “He deserved it. Now, where were we?”  
~~~  
“Aww, come on man!” Sam exclaims loudly once he sees Bucky laying across the couch with his head in Steve’s lap. “I just wanted to watch a movie in peace, but you're here being gross, and Wanda, Peter, and one of Peter’s friends are hogging the other room to do a reenactment of Star Wars as the movie plays in the background.”

“You’re welcome to join us,” Bucky says. “There are other seats here, you know.”

“We’re watching a movie that Natasha recommended; I think it’s called Indiana Jones?”

“Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Bucky supplies.

Sam frowns and looks away, then looks back at them. “I love that movie, but I can’t sit here and enjoy the movie if all I can see is you two out of the corner of my eye.”

“Well it sure does sound like it’s us or the Star Wars reenactment,” Bucky says casually, “Because I’m not moving.”

Sam considers for a moment before Tony’s voice rings out from down the hall, “How did you three break the lights?!”

“I’ll just go use my computer I guess,” he says with a sigh, turning around and subtly flipping Bucky off.

Bucky pulls the pillow next to Steve off of the couch and throws it at Sam, hitting the back of his retreating head. 

“Hey!” Sam yells, annoyed, throwing the pillow back but not even hitting the couch.

“You have terrible aim,” Bucky comments in a monotone voice after turning his attention back to the movie, and this time, Sam isn’t so subtle when he flips him off.  
~~~  
“Come on, Buck, we have things to do.”

“No,” he answers, burying his face further into Steve’s shirt.

“Natasha wants us downstairs to help train Peter,” Steve says as he half-heartedly attempts to push Bucky off of him. 

“Five more minutes.”

“You said that half an hour ago too and every five minutes since; we’re going to be late.”

“Natasha can come up here and pull my ass off of you then; I’m not scared of her. I want to cuddle with you, so I’m going to fucking cuddle you.”

“And disappoint Peter? I’d imagine he’d be really upset and worried if we aren’t there on time…” Steve trails off, hoping it will work.

Bucky is silent for a few seconds before letting out a big sigh and pushing himself off of Steve, grumbling, “Peter better be happy that we’re there for interrupting cuddle time.”

“Everything interrupts cuddle time,” Steve says with a roll of his eyes. “And it’s Peter. He gets happy even if you’re just in the kitchen for something to drink and he’s in there too.”

Bucky tilts his head to the side and nods in agreement, helping Steve up before they head to the gym together.  
~~~  
“It’s a few hours back to HQ, so settle in,” Tony says from the front of the quinjet after their last mission.

“You have blood on your face,” Steve says as he passes over a rag for Bucky to clean it off with.

“I don’t think it’s mine,” Bucky says off-handedly, quickly wiping his face off. “I wish I had known the flight was going to be this long,” he mutters to Steve.

“Why?”

“I would have packed a change of clothes, because what we are wearing is not comfortable to cuddle in.”

“What did I say about using the word cuddle on my ship?” Tony yells at him, and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“I thought you liked me in my uniform,” Steve says in an attempt to stop Bucky from arguing with Tony over the cuddling thing again. “I thought you said it looked good.”

“It does wonders to your ass,” Bucky admits, “But it’s not soft and not easily pliable.”

“Or easy to take off,” Clint mutters as he passes them. When Bucky hits him in the shoulder for it, Clint rubs the spot and says, “Hey, you can't tell me you weren’t thinking that.”

“I was getting there,” Bucky says, turning to see a pink Steve. “But I wanted to make him turn colors.”

“Buck,” Steve says with a glare.

Bucky ignores the glare, knowing that Steve doesn’t mean it. He folds his hand with Steve’s and lays his head on his shoulder, needing something, even a little bit of contact. He always needs a reminder that this isn’t a dream. That this is real. And he thinks, as Steve rests his head on his, that sometimes he needs it too.


	38. *Not a chapter* An Update

Hey there! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it had to come eventually. If you haven't noticed, my updates in here keep getting further and further apart. In the spring, this was because I changed majors and had more intensive classes, so less time to write. Ever since Endgame though, I've lost most of my inspiration for marvel. I wrote the fix it to try and help, I forced another chapter out after that... then, nothing. Zero, zip, zada. I've found myself falling out of the fandom. I still enjoy watching the movies, and for now, look forward to future movies, but I don't have enough in me to continue much more marvel, so this is the first thing I'm shutting down.  
I apologize especially to those whose requests are still sitting in my inbox, but if I force myself to write, I'm just gonna burn out. If anyone wants, I'll make another chapter with the rest of the prompts so someone else can take them, but this is it from me. I'll still be on tumblr if you want to talk or hang though. Let me know if you want the prompts and I'll be back, but if not, it was lovely having all of you here. <3


End file.
